STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH 

OR 

CONTRIBUTIONS   TOWARDS  A  STUDY   OF   THEOLOGY 

APPROACHED  FROM  THE  HEATHEN  SIDE 

OF  THE  FENCE 


'That  gospel  which  I  preach  among  the  gentiles — Gal.  ii  :  i 


BL 

2775 
.A8 
V.2 


PART    II. 


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WILLIAM    ASHMORE 


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Book  will  be  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price,  by  the  publishers, 
A.  M.  SKINNER  &  CO.,    655   Atlantic  Avenue,  Boston 


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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Presented    by  Vv-(£.  S \  cX<2.rA'V    \~'cJ\W o 


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Division 


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Ashmore,  William,  1824-1909 

Stones  in  the  rough,  or,   i 

Contributions  towards  a   ' 


STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH 

OR 

CONTRIBUTIONS    TOWARDS  A  STUDY    OF    THEOLOGY 

APPROACHED  FROM  THE  HEATHEN  SIDE 

OF  THE  FENCE 


That  gospel  which  I  preach  among  the  genti/es-^Ga\ .  ii  :  2 


PART    IL 


WILLIAM    ASHMORE 


PUBLISHER'S   CARD 

WILL    BE    IN    FOUR    PARTS    WHEN    COMPLETED 

I.    The   Method  of  Study,  and  the  Reason  Therefor      44  Pages 
II.    The  Theology  of  Nature      .         .         .         .         •       77      " 

III.    The  Theology  of  Revelation         .  Probably  about  150      " 
IV.     Related  Subjects,  Issues  and  Questions      "  80      " 


'Respectfully  2)e^icate^ 

TO 

The    Executive    Committee    and   Administrative    Officers 

OF 

THE     AMERICAN     BAPTIST     MISSIONARY      UNION 

As  Illustrative  of  the  Gospel  They  Send  Out  Their  Missionaries 
to  Preach,  as  Apprehended  by  One  of  Their  Number 

WILLIAM   ASHMORE 


THEOLOGY     IS     THE     SCIENCE     OF     GOD 

By  a  "science"  we  mean  a  classified  presentation   of 
all  the  facts  we  can  ascertain  about  God ;    about  him 
personally;     the   mode   of  his   being;    the   nature   of 
his  attributes;   the  creations  of  his  hand;  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  government;    the   relations  he  sustains 
to  the  universe  he  has  made  —  and   to   the  creatures 
that  are  in  it;    together  with  his  plans  and   purposes 
so  far  as  it  is  possible  or  proper  for  us  to  know  them; 
and,  as  a  consequential  result,  a  classified  statement 
of  the  attitudes,  feelings  and   actions  due  to  himself 
as  God  over  all  blessed  forever  more;  towards  spiritual 
beings,   who,   though  we    have   nothing  to   do   con- 
sciously with  them,  have  much  to   do  with  us  —  and 
towards  our  fellow  human  creatures  as  being  made  of 
one  blood  with  us  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


Sources  of  Knowledge  of  a  Theology  of  Nature 
Natural  Reason      ....... 

Teachings  of  the  Natural  Reason  about  the  Existence  of 
God,  The  Creator  ....... 

The  Natural  Conscience        ...... 

Teachings  of  the  Natural  Conscience  on  Obligations 

These  Two  Obligations  Form  the  "  Law  of  Nature  " 

The  Gospel  of  Nature      ...... 

The  Saving  Value  of  this  Inchoate  Faith  . 

An  Objection  Which  Here  Interposes  Itself 

The  Three  Elements  Which  Enter  into  the  Theology  of 
Nature     ...... 

Application  to  the  Men  of  Antediluvian  Times 

Grounds  of  the  Condemnation  of  the  Antediluvian  World 

The  Gospel  Among  the  Antediluvians 

Why  the  Old  World  Perished 

The  Question  of  a  Second  Probation 

What  Constitutes  a  "  Probation  " 

A  Most  Erroneous  Conception 

The  First  and  Second  Trials  of  Adam  and  Eve  Compared 

The  Antediluvians  Then  Have   Had  Their  Second  Pro- 
bation      ....... 

"  Unto  All  and  Upon  All"      .... 
The  Theology  of  Nature  Among  Post  Diluvians 

The  Stage  of  Another  Rapid   Religious  and   Mora 
generacy  ...... 

Light  They  Had,  but  They  Walked  Not  in  It 

Lingering  Rays  on  the  Mountain  Tops     . 

Confirmation  in  Remains  of  Primitive  Literature 

Post  Diluvian  Gospel        ..... 

Universality  and  Value  of  Post  Diluvian  Gospel  Gleams 


1   De- 


Three  Books  of  Holy  Scripture  Taken  up  Largely  With 
THE  Theology  of  Nature 

The  Book  of  Job    ..... 
The  Book  of  Proverbs     .... 
The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes 
II.     The  Stage  of  Heathen  Constructiveness 

III.  The  Stage  of  Philosophical  Speculation  and  Inquiry 

Why  Primitive  Philosophy  Failed     . 
The  Torch  of  Philosophy  in  Transition    . 
The  Shortages  of  Philosophy    .... 
Is  Sound  Philosophy  Inimical  to  God  and  Truth 

IV.  The  Stage  of  Scientific  Investigation  and  Ascertain- 
ment ....... 

The  Shortages  of  Science 
Is  True  Science  Antagonistic  to  Religion 
Four  Great  Schools  of  Learning 

The  School  of  Faith         .... 
Faith  Our  Greatest  Source  of  Knowledge 
The  Method  of  Faith  and  the  Method  of  Science 
The  Conclusion  of  the  Whole  Matter 


46 

47 
48 

50 

52 
58 
60 
61 
62 

63 

63 
66 

67 
69 

70 

71 

72 

74 


PART  SECOND. 

THE    THEOLOGY    OF    NATURE. 

Entirely  apart  from  the  teachings  of  divine  revelation,  there  is 
a  vast  amount  to  be  learned  about  God,  about  his  nature,  about  his 
attributes,  about  his  administration  of  human  affairs, — supporting 
the  good  and  condemning  the  evil — and  also  about  human  beings  in 
their  relation  to  God  and  their  relations  to  each  other.  This  is  usually 
called  "The  Light  of  Nature."  "Nature,"  so-called,  is  then  a  divinely 
appointed  teacher.    "Doth  not  even  nature  itself  teach  you?" 

The  light  of  nature  involves  a  large  measure  of  moral  responsi-' 
bihty.  Its  lessons  are  gathered  partly  by  intuitional  perception — as 
when  the  physical  senses  perceive  material  objects,  and  the  moral 
sense  perceives  moral  relations, — the  objects  of  light  and  the  sense 
of  light  being  mutually  fitted  for  each  other.  Men  are  required  to  see 
and  to  think  and  to  feel,  even  in  a  state  of  nature.  Failure  or  negli- 
gence in  this  on  the  one  hand,  or  diligent  compliance  on  the  other,  in- 
volves condemnation  or  justification.  This  condemnation  or  justifica- 
tion may  have  a  far-reaching  effect  extending  quite  over  into  a  morally 
different  condition  of  affairs.  It  is  quite  manifest  in  the  scriptures 
that  in  God's  plan  there  are  provisional  states  preparatory  to  a  final 
one.  The  provisional  compliance  or  non-compliance  under  the  law  of 
nature  may  be  accepted  and  negotiated  under  the  law  of  grace  when 
the  fulness  of  time  should  come.  Acts  of  faith  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
regime  of  faith,  when  men  did  not  know  much  and  could  not  beheve 
as  intelligently  as  they  could  at  a  later  date  with  more  light,  as  we 
understand  the  Old  Testament  teaching,  were  like  what  the  financiers 
call  convertible  bonds,  the  value  of  which  was  to  be  determined  by 
what  Christ  was  to  do  at  a  later  day  when  he  should  come  as  a  minister 
of  the  circumcision  for  the  truth  of  God  to  confirm  the  promises  made 
to  the  fathers. 

II 


56  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

The  Theology  of  Nature  is  a  universal  theology.  It  is  coeval  with 
human  existence.  It  is  a  theology  possessed  by  every  nation,  by  every 
tribe,  by  every  kindred,  by  every  individual  of  the  human  family  in 
less  or  more  of  clearness.  It  is  a  heritage  alike  of  the  civilized  and  of 
the  uncivilized, — of  the  bond  and  the  free;  it  antedates  the  Theology 
of  Revelation,  which  began  to  be  given  at  a  later  day.  So  far  as  the 
teachings  and  the  sanctions  of  the  tAvo  theologies  go,  their  outcome  is 
the  same,  though  the  teachings  of  the  theology  of  nature  are  or  have 
become  confessedly  inadequate  to  meet  human  needs.  It  is  because 
they  are  or  have  become  inadequate  that  they  have  had  to  be  sup- 
plemented by  the  later  theology  of  revelation. 

It  is  a  deplorable  characteristic  of  much  of  the  religious  thought 
of  this  generation  that  many  men  are  turning  back  from  "the  true 
light  that  now  shineth,"  and  are  taking  Up  with  a  superficial  glamour 
which  they  style  scientific,  but  which  is  in  reality  a  reversion  to,  in 
their  case,  and  a  going  beyond  the  superseded  light  of  nature.  They 
drop  emphasis  on  the  personality  of  a  divine  Being,  and  talk  about  a 
universal  and  omnipotent  "energy."  They  cease  to  talk  of  creation, 
and  expatiate  on  evolution.  They  talk  about  law,  about  fixed  law,  as 
they  call  it,  but  they  no  longer  see  the  guidance  and  supremacy  of  a 
Law  Giver. 

On  this  account  also  and  because  nature  worship  is  reasserting  it- 
self so  much  in  this  twentieth  century,  it  is  all  the  more  important  that 
the  theology  of  nature  itself  should  be  examined,  first  of  all,  to  know 
what  it  can  teach  and  what  it  cannot  teach — as  a  necessary  pre- 
requisite to  the  study  of  the  theology  of  revelation. 

SOURCES      OF      KNOWLEDGE     OF     THE     THEOLOGY     OF 

NATURE. 

I.  The  Natural  Reason. — Or  that  group  of  faculties  (including 
the  bodily  senses  and  the  intellectual  capabihties)  by  which  we  see  and 

12 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  "      57 

note  facts,  principles,  phenomena  and  all  operations  of  cause  and 
effect,  in  the  created  universe  around  us,  alike  in  the  realm  of  mind, 
and  of  matter.  It  compares,  it  contrasts ;  it  speculates ;  it  draws  con7 
elusions  and  applies  them ;  making  forecasts  also  into  the  future. 

II.  The  Natural  Conscience. — It  discerns  moral  qualities,  in  ac- 
tions, in  principles  and  in  conduct.  It  possesses  not  only  a  discern- 
ing power  to  discriminate  between  right  and  wrong,  but  also  a  judicial 
power  to  enforce  its  own  conclusions  by  enjoining  and  forbidding — by 
commendation  in  case  of  compliance,  and  commendation  in  case  of 
non-compliance.    "The  Moral  Sense." 

III.  The  Natural  Reason  and  the  Natural  Conscience  in  Their 
Interaction  With  and  Upon  Each  Other. — Each  one  separately  dis- 
covers to  us  many  truths  of  prime  importance  which  enter  into  our 
make-up  of  the  theology  of  nature.  In  their  interaction  and  comple- 
mental  relationship  they  reveal  to  us  some  entirely  new  aspects  of 
truth,  and  of  moral  relationship  which  cannot  be  gathered  by  simply 
adding  together  one  and  one  which  makes  two,  but  still  a  third  phase 
of  truth  comes  in  sight,  which  makes  three,  perceived  at  one  glance 
from  two  data.  This  peculiarity  is  conformable  to  the  scientific  fact 
that  when  one  object, — a  globe  for  example,  is  seen  through  a  binocu- 
lar, properties  of  the  globe  become  apparent  which  are  not  perceptible 
when  a  monocle  is  used.  Our  whole  science  of  metaphysics  is  built  up 
largely  on  the  principle  that  from  two  discoveries  we  can  deduce  a 
third,  and  from  three  data  we  can  deduce  a  fourth,  a  fifth,  and  a  sixth, 
with  an  approximate  degree  of  probabilitj^ 

IV.  The  Vast  Aggregate  of  Experience  of  the  Human  Race 
Acquired  by  it  in  the  Course  of  its  Historical  Development,  All 
Bearing  on  the  Problems  of  the  Theology  of  Nature. — This  experi- 
ence of  mankind  is  of  the  nature  of  that  decisive  testing  known  in  the 
divine  economy  as  Fruitage.  Its  results  summed  up  at  the  end  of 
many  generations  shows  what  the  theology  of  nature  can  do  for  the 
enlightenment  and  the  uplift  of  mankind,  and  what  is  of  even  greater 

13 


58  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

importance,  what  it  cannot  do,  and  which  therefore  enforces  the  de- 
mand for  a  supplemental  theology  of  revelation. 

This  human  experience,  with  all  its  teachings  and  deductions  of 
such  transcendent  importance  in  divine  pedagogy,  is  contained : 

I.  In  the  literature  of  the  non-biblical  writers  of  all  ages.  His- 
torians, philosophers,  poets,  moralists  and  expounders  of  all  the 
heathen  religions,  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  Indian,  Confucian  and 
Buddhist,  and  all  modern  systems  of  naturalism.  In  this  list  is  to  be 
included  their  vast  collection  of  aphorisms  and  proverbs  and  their 
maxims  for  the  government  of  society  and  the  conduct  of  individuals, 
and  all  such  writers  as  Seneca,  Cicero,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Homer,  Virgil 
and  others. 

II.  In  certain  portions  of  Biblical  literature,  such  as  the  Book 
of  Job,  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  and  selections 
from  other  places.  Though  these  books  are  in  the  inspired  Canon  they 
are  mostly  taken  up  with  an  authoritative  setting  forth  of  the  teach- 
ings and  sanctions  of  the  Theology  of  Nature,  and  derive  their  trans- 
cendent value  from  the  fact  that  they  form  God's  imprimatur  on  a 
correct  estimate  of  what  the  Theology  of  Nature  can  be  and  can  do. 

NATURAL    REASON. 

By  this  designation  we  mean  that  faculty  or  grotip  of  faculties 
by  which  we  discern  all  matters  of  design  as  distinguished  from 
chance,  all  relations  of  cause  and  effect,  of  antecedent  and  consequent. 
It  is  the  faculty  by  which  we  compare  and  contrast,  by  which  we  de- 
duce consequences  and  conclusions,  by  which  we  discern  harmonies 
and  discord,  by  which  we  analyze  and  synthesize  and  classify — by 
which  we  determine  adaptations  and  by  which  we  derive  inferences, 
and  also  formulate  conjectures  and  reckon  probabiUties. 

The  possession  by  human  beings  of  such  a  faculty  or  such  a  group 
of  faculties  presupposes  the  prior  existence  of  an   anterior  world  of 

14 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  59 

spirits  in  each  of  which  are  many  and  varied  entities  of  being,  arranged 
in  grades  and  gradations.  These  entities  of  being  in  the  three  reahns 
of  matter,  mind  and  spirit,  have  conformities  and  correspondences  with 
each  other,  which  make  it  possible  to  reason  from  one  to  the  other. 
That  is  to  say,  the  laws  of  action  in  the  material  world  have  some  sort 
of  counterpart  in  the  laws  of  action  in  the  still  higher  realm  of  the 
spiritual  world.  Were  it  not  so  it  would  be  impossible  to  reason  from 
one  unto  the  other  as  we  now  continually  have  to  do,  and  moreover  it 
would  be  impossible  for  a  person  in  a  lower  state  of  existence  to  rise 
to  a  higher  state  of  existence,  for  what  we  call  personality  would  be  at 
an  end  at  every  transition.  The  experiences — the  mutual  acquisitions 
and  the  character  attained  in  the  lower  state  and  which  become  insepar- 
able acquisitions  of  the  original  soul  substance  would  not  be  transmis- 
sible. Again,  personality  and  individuality  would  be  at  an  end.  Im- 
mortahty  itself  would  become  questionable  and  all  the  biblical 
suppositions  based  on  the  assumption  of  its  truthfulness  would  have 
nothing  to  rest  upon.  If  experiences  and  character  are  not  transmis- 
sible, then  what  is,  and  what  is  the  use  of  having  anything  transmis- 
sible ?  For  practically  it  would  mean  that  all  has  to  be  blotted  out  and 
a  new  beginning  made.  There  is  no  Christian  doctrine  of  immortaUty 
about  that;  it  is  the  heathen  doctrine  of  Nigban  and  absorption  into 
some  primal  essence. 

But  as  sentient  beings  are  now  constituted  with  their  three-fold 
natures,  their  possibilities  of  adaptation  to  three  separate  kingdoms  of 
nature,  and  their  three  sets  of  capabilities  co-existent  in  one  person- 
ahty, — with  all  such  beings  the  acquisition  and  experience  of  a  lower 
state  are  not  lost  when  a  hne  of  demarkation  is  crossed,  but  are  thrown 
forward  into  the  new  state  of  existence  and  become  the  capital  stock  of 
attainment  of  that  new  nature  as  it  enters  on  its  higher  career.  The 
earthly  material  which  forms  the  present  housing  of  a  living  soul  may 
go  back  to  its  original  dust,  but  all  the  acquisition  of  the  soul  substance 
during  its  incarceration  in  its  tenement  of  flesh  and  blood  will  inhere 


60  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

in  the  soul  substance  itself,  and  not  be  cast  off  with  the  worn-out  in- 
tegument when  its  usefulness  is  at  an  end.  Forms  of  life  may  change, 
and  outside  garments  may  be  altered,  but  soul  substance,  being  an  im- 
partation  of  the  breath  of  a  living  God,  is  of  the  very  nature  imperish- 
able and  unchangeable. 

TEACHINGS  OF  THE  NATURAL  REASON 

ABOUT 
THE  EXISTENCE  OF  GOD  THE  CREATOR. 

The  Natural  Reason  exercises  itself  on  "the  things  that  are 
made."  It  studies  adaptations;  it  notes  evidences  of  intelligent  pur- 
pose and  of  obviotis  design.  It  examines  into  relations ;  it  investigates 
properties  and  capabilities,  and  notably  it  is  bound  to  inquire  into 
origins  and  beginnings  and  causal  relations  of  all  kinds,  and  finally  it 
reaches  and  formulates  conclusions. 

Among  the  ascertainments  and  conclusions  of  the  Natural  Rea- 
son the  most  preponderant  and  stupendous  of  them  all  is  that  the  uni- 
verse has  a  Creator,  that  there  is  but  one  Creator,  and  not  two,  for  the 
laws  and  the  system  of  the  universe  are  one  and  not  two;  that  this 
Creator  is  a  spiritual  being  who  fills  all  time  and  all  space — that  he  is 
omnipotent,  omnipresent  and  omniscient  and  eternal.  In  other  words, 
it  demands  as  indispensable  to  an  explanation  of  the  phenomena  it  is 
made  cognizant  of,  the  eternal  power  and  Godhead  of  a  supreme 
Being. 

A  question  has  been  raised  in  this  day  of  philosophic  incertitude 
as  to  whether  "design  proves  a  designer."  Paley's  argumentation  has 
been  impugned  as  inconclusive.  But  few  rational  thinkers  are  caught 
by  the  subtleties  of  these  sophists.  The  universal  experience  and  hard 
common  sense  of  mankind  refuses  to  surrender  so  self-evident  a  con- 
clusion. If  there  is  a  design  there  must  be  a  designer ;  if  there  is  a 
building  there  must  be  an  architect ;  if  there  be  a  boat  there  must  be  a 

i6 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  61 

builder.  If  there  is  a  bridge  there  must  be  a  framer;  if  there  is  an 
eiFect  there  must  be  a  cause.  On  this  whole  subject  God's  own  teach- 
ing is  explicit.  He  affirms  that  things  created  prove  the  existence  of 
a  Creator.  Paul's  declaration  in  Romans  cannot  be  set  aside  by  any- 
human  sophistry.  "Because  that  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  mani- 
fest in  them" — not  merely  to  them  but  in  them,  inwrought  by  God 
himself  in  the  very  fibre  of  their  intellectual  being;  it  is  a  neces- 
sity of  their  law  of  thought.  "For  God  hath  showed  it  unto  them. 
For  the  invisible  of  him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen, 
being  understood  by  the  things  which  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power 
and  Godhead,  so  that  they  are  without  excuse."  We  accept  this  divine 
utterance  as  conclusive  and  final.  Nor  need  any  Christian  teacher  feel 
called  upon  to  spend  any  time  to  confute  a  man  who  contradicts  out- 
right the  teaching  of  an  inspired  apostle.  Christ  once  gave  some  ad- 
vice about  the  proper  scattering  of  pearls. 

THE    NATURAL    CONSCIENCE. 

The  natural  conscience,  or  the  Moral  Sense,  as  we  also  term  it,  is 
that  faculty  or  that  group  of  faculties  by  which  we  perceive  moral  re- 
lations, and  moral  qualities,  and  by  which  also  we  feel  the  impulse  of 
moral  obligation.  It  has  thus  a  double  function — to  perceive  and  to 
impel,  and  forms  the  basis  of  what  we  call  moral  accountabihty.  It  is 
proper  to  call  it  a  "sense,"  like  the  sense  of  seeing,  or  the  sense  of  hear- 
ing; its  action  is  spontaneous,  as  soon  as  the  object  to  be  perceived 
and  the  perceiving  agency  are  confronted  with  each  other.  It  does 
not  have  to  reason ;  it  sees  for  itself. 

It  is  by  this  faculty  that  we  perceive  moral  qualities  in  God,  moral 
qualities  in  angels,  and  moral  qualities  in  men,  and  by  which  also,  as 
soon  as  the  quality  or  relation  is  perceived  we  at  once  feel  the  pressure 
of  an  obhgation  to  correspond.  The  sense  of  "oughtness"  arises  in- 
stantaneously.   "We  perceive,  therefore  we  ought."    It  is  this  faculty 

17 


62  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

also  that  discerns  the  moral  quaUty  of  principles  of  action,  of  motives 
of  conduct,  and  by  it  also  we  pass  judgment  on  the  concrete  conscience 
of  a  community  or  of  a  state,  as  we  do  in  the  conscience  of  an  in- 
dividual, for  conscience  is  always  judged  by  its  peers.    Emphasis  must 
be  laid  on  the  fact,  already  stated,  that  it  has  not  only  a  judicial  but 
also  an  executive  function ;  it  decides  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong, 
and  then  it  executes  its  own  decisions  in  accord  therewith.      It  com- 
mends and  it  condemns ;  it  accuses  and  it  excuses.  ^ 
The  conscience  faculty  does  not  have  to  be  imparted  to  any  one, 
by  a  process  of  education,  though  it  needs  to  be  guided  by  enlightened 
educators.     It  is  born  with  every  one  and  in  every  one,  whether  civi- 
lized men  or  savage  men,  which  show  the  work  of  the   Law   written 
in  their  heart.    Notice  the  word  "in"  in  preference  to  the  word  "on." 
There  is  a  difference  between  having  a  color  stamped  on  an  article,  and , 
having  its  colored  threads  woven  in  the  article — hke  water-lined  paper, ' 
as  some  would  call  it.    "Their  conscience  also  bearing  them  witness  and 
their  thoughts  meanwhile  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  another."  The 
natural  conscience  then  is  an  Instructor,  a  Witness,  a  Judge,  an  Exe- 
cutor, a  Recorder,  and  a  moral  Representative  of  God  in  the  soul. 

TEACHINGS  OF  THE  NATURAL  CONSCIENCE  ON  OBLIGATIONS. 

I.  Due  from  the  Creature  to  the  Creator. — It  teaches  that  hom- 
age, obedience,  worship  and  service  are  due  to  God  because  he  is  God. 
It  may  be  misled  as  to  who  is  God,  and  may  substitute  a  false  God 
for  the  true  God — ^but  whoever  is  in  the  place  of  God  will  be  consid- 
ered as  entitled  to  the  homage,  and  will  receive  the  homage  until  the 
conscience  is  better  informed. 

II.  Due  from  the  Creature  to  the  Creature. — Because  the  fel- 
low creature  is  an  equal,  therefore  he  is  entitled  to  equal  consideration, 
to  the  same  rights,  the  same  privileges,  the  same  immunities;  as  all 
others  are  possessed  of. 

i8 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  6a 

THESE  TWO  OBLIGATIONS  FORM  "tHE  LAW  OF  NATURE." 

They  are  the  equivalents  of  the  commands  given  at  a  later  day, 
"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy 
soul  and  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength,"  and  "thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  The  first  is  the  Religious  Law  of 
Nature,  and  the  second  is  the  Moral  Law  of  Nature.  They  constitute 
man  a  religious  being  and  a  moral  being.  He  is  required  to  be  reli- 
gious towards  God  and  moral  towards  man.  Together  in  their  com- 
bined character  they  form  the  law  which  every  created  being  is  re- 
quired to  obey;  they  form  the  law  by  which  angels  and  men  alike  are 
judged,  tried,  condemned  or  exonerated  as  the  case  may  be.  These  two 
laws  are  distinct  and  yet  united — the  law  of  obligation  towards  God 
and  the  law  of  obligation  towards  man.  The  first  leads  to  the  second ; 
the  second  rests  on  the  first  for  its  foundation.  The  man  who  violates 
the  one  will  be  sure  to  violate  the  other.  Men  who  do  not  fear  God 
cannot  be  depended  upon  to  regard  man.  No  man  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  can  escape  responsibility  and  pretend  ignorance  of  the  law,  for 
every  man  has  in  his  own  heart  and  mind  a  full  copy  for  himself.  Be- 
fore proceeding  to  apply,  we  must  take  into  account  another  factor. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  NATURE. 

The  gospel  of  nature  includes  all  those  intimations,  premonitions 
and  initial  acts  of  grace  and  mercy  that  are  scattered  up  and  down  the 
word  of  God,  and  that  are  seen  in  innumerable  mercies  large  and 
small  along  the  pathway  of  human  history,  which  show  that  God  is 
willing  to  be  gracious,  forgiving  and  helpful  to  men  even  if  they  have 
sinned;  that  he  has  not  cast  them  off  entirely  as  they  deserve,  but 
will  do  something  to  help  them,  and  which  also  inspire  men  to  hope 
that  all  is  not  lost,  but  that  God  will  have  compassion  on  them  in  some 
way  or  other,  though  when  and  how  they  do  not  know.  They  hope  and 
they  hope,  and  they  study  signs  and  indications  and  add  to  their  hope, 

19 


64  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

and  there  grows  up  within  them  a  faith — ill-formed  and  inchoate 
to  be  sure,  and  yet  which  has  in  it  the  primal  essence  of  all  faith, — ^be- 
lief in  God's  undeserved  mercy, — a  faith  which  may  antedate  faith  in 
Christ.  "Ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me," — and  a  faith  which  is 
saving  in  its  day  and  generation  as  much  as  any  other  faith,  at  least 
provisionally  so,  until  Christ  should  come  and  take  up  the  counters 
which  were  held. 

This  Gospel  of  Nature  is  succinctly  set  forth  in  Paul's  sermon  at 
Lystra,  Acts  14,  when  in  speaking  of  God's  providence  he  says,  "Who 
in  times  suffered  all  nations  to  walk  in  their  own  ways.  Nevertheless 
he  left  not  himself  without  witness  in  that  he  did  good  and  gave  rain 
from  heaven  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  our  hearts  with  food  and 
gladness."  All  this  is  gospel  preaching,  not  law  preaching.  In  Ro- 
mans 1 :  18,  is  preached  the  condemnation  that  comes  by  the  law  of  na- 
ture: "For  the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all 
ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men  who  hold  the  tnith  in  un- 
righteousness." But  here  at  Lystra  he  preaches  the  great  complemen- 
tary truth  that  as  wrath  is  revealed  so  goodness  is  revealed.  We  are 
led  to  infer,  therefore,  that  one  lies  over  against  the  other  in  the  divine 
plan,  that  in  every  period  of  the  world  and  among  every  people  when 
there  has  been  a  law  to  condemn  there  has  been  a  gospel  to  save.  God 
has  never  left  himself  without  a  witness  of  his  readiness  to  be  merciful 
and  to  do  good  is  a  truth  as  complete  as  that  his  wrath  is  revealed ;  we 
can  draw  no  other  conclusion  from  the  texts  adduced. 


THE  SAVING  VALUE  OF  THIS  INCHOATE  FAITH. 

The  question  is  often  asked.  Will  not  men  (the  heathen  for  ex- 
ample) be  saved  if  they  do  as  well  as  they  know  how?  This  is  but  an- 
other way  of  asking  if  men  cannot  be  saved  by  their  own  works  of 
merit.  The  answer  is  given  in  the  negative  once  for  all  by  the  Apostle, 
when  he  says,  "Therefore  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be 

20 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  65 

justified."  Men  cannot  be  saved  by  works,  by  merit,  by  character  or 
by  heredity.  When  Adam  fell,  that  gateway  to  heaven  became  impas- 
sable to  men  who  had  become  sinners,  or  who  had  become  sinful  in  na- 
ture, for,  in  the  category  of  a  holy  God,  sin  and  sinfulness  and  a  sinful 
nature,  sin  and  the  potency  of  sin,  are  classed  as  one  and  treated  as 
one.  The  Lord  Jesus  is  the  only  one  who  ever  went  through  that  gate- 
way triumphant  and  a  victor,  which  he  did  on  behalf  of  his  people,  and 
won  for  them  a  success  they  never  could  win  for  themselves. 

But  if  now  the  question  be  asked,  "Can  men  be  saved  if  they  believe 
up  to,  or  (what  perhaps  is  better  to  say)  believe  according  to  the  light 
or  the  evidence  they  have,  the  whole  face  of  the  issue  is  changed,  and 
the  subject  is  not  to  be  set  aside  in  a  summary  way.  The  mercy  of 
God  towards  the  ancient  world  which  perished  before  Christ  came  lies 
in  that  direction  wholly.  A  theory  is  advocated  nowadays  that  all  men 
must  have  an  opportunity  to  learn  about  "The  Historic  Christ"  as  they 
call  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  or  "Christ  after  the  flesh,"  as  Paul  puts  it. 
This  way  of  stating  it  implies  that  Christ  is  not  merely  one,  but  more 
than  one;  he  is  two  in  their  estimation.  We  accept  that  so  far  as  it 
goes,  for  Paul  knew  a  Christ  after  the  flesh  and  a  Christ  who  was  not 
after  the  flesh,  but  a  Christ  enthroned  and  glorified.  There  is  not  only 
a  Historic  Christ,  but  there  is  a  prehistoric  Christ,  and  a  post  Historic 
Christ,  which  was  Paul's  other  Christ,  and  there  is  a  Prophetic  Christ, 
and  the  Christ  of  Types  and  shadows.  Faith  in  any  one  of  these 
presentations  of  Christ  is  faith  in  Christ  in  the  concrete — it  is 
constructively  and  sequentially  faith  in  every  form,  and  contains 
the  promise  and  potency  of  all  faith.  Salvation  is  by  faith. 
It  has  always  been  by  faith,  and  will  never  be  by  anything 
but  faith.  The  "character"  that  men  love  to  speak  of  is  only 
an  evidence  of  the  existence  of  faith,  but  it  is  faith  that  does  the 
saving. 

When  we  come  to  study  it,  we  find  that  faith  exists  in  various 
forms  and  various  degrees.     Salvation  is  revealed  from  faith  to  faith ; 

21 


66  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

from  one  degree  of  faith  to  another  degree  of  faith ;  from  one  acquisi- 
tion of  faith  to  another  acquisition  of  faith;  from  the  faith  of  one 
generation  to  the  more  fully  developed  faith  of  another  generation ;  it 
is  aggregative  and  cumulative.  Its  different  yields  may  vary  in  de- 
gree, but  the  end  of  them  all  is  the  same,  "the  salvation  of  your  souls." 
Faith  is  accepted  of  a  man  according  to  the  evidence  which  he  has;  it 
is  not  required  of  him  according  to  evidence  which  another  may  have 
but  which  he  himself  has  not.  That  is  God's  unchanging  law  of 
equity  and  his  way  of  evening  up  in  human  affairs  and  human  condi- 
tions. God  will  give  to  the  poor,  low-down  groper  after  God,  who  be- 
lieves in  a  halting  and  feeble  way,  according  to  the  few  dim  rays  of 
light  from  above  that  penetrate  his  darkness,  the  same  as  to  you  who 
believe  according  to  the  mighty  blaze  of  sunlight  and  the  accumulated 
weight  of  twenty  centuries  of  evidence ; — the  eleventh  hour  men  re- 
ceived the  same  as  the  first  hour  men,  a  penny  apiece  all  around.  Shall 
not  God  do  as  he  pleases  with  his  own?  It  is  all  grace  from  fu'st  to 
last, — not  merit  nor  personal  worth. 

AN  OBJECTION  WHICH  HERE  INTERPOSES  ITSELF. 

But  if  the  possibilities  of  a  mere  glimmering  of  faith  are  likely 
to  be  attended  vrith  so  much  acceptance  before  God,  why  not  leave  the 
heathen  nations  alone  in  the  conditions  they  nov/  are,  backward  though 
they  may  be?  Two  replies  at  once  present  themselves  to  such  a  con- 
clusion. ( 1 )  The  life-giving  processes  of  the  great  Creator  are  never 
limited  to  the  product  of  elementary  forms.  Elementary  or  inchoate 
faith  is  not  the  terminus  ad  quern  in  this  department  any  more  than  in 
any  other  department  of  God's  work.  It  is  his  purpose  that  men 
should  have  life  and  furthermore  that  they  should  have  life  more 
abundantly.  It  was  for  that  purpose  that  Christ  came,  as  he  himself 
tells  us.  He  would  not  have  us  content  with  any  morning  twilight, 
but  would  have  us  look  forward  to  the  powerful  blaze  of  the  noonday 

22 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  67 

sun.  And  we  are  commanded  to  act  accordingly.  The  darkness  is 
past  and  the  true  light  now  shineth.  The  people  who  sit  in  darkness 
shall  see  great  light.  We  have  that  light  and  are  commanded  to 
"Arise"  and  let  it  shine.  (2)  From  reasons  which  will  appear  as  we 
proceed  we  think  that  numbers,  probably  large  numbers,  more  or  less 
large  according  to  states  of  society,  will  be  found  who  are  among  those 
that  "hope  in  His  mercy."  Their  conceptions  are  crude  and  their  ascer- 
tainments are  limited.  Nevertheless  they  may  be  of  the  kind  that  God 
accepts,  and  we  may  reasonably  hope  to  find  a  multitude  of  them,  out 
of  every  tribe  and  people,  that  had  not  known  His  scripture  name  nor 
know  how  it  was  done,  yet  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Judge, 
justified  by  their  inchoate  faith,  which  the  Holy  Spirit  knows  how  to 
translate  into  the  terms  of  the  sacrifice  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  Avorld.  But  it  is  startlingly  true  that  this  faith  receptivity  seems 
to  have  diminished  as  the  ages  have  gone  on.  Men  have  lost  their  ca- 
pacity for  it,  or  have  ceased  to  exercise  it,  and  it  is  absolutely  needful 
that  there  be  a  new  and  fuller  increment  of  a  mightier  grace  of  God 
that  bringeth  salvation. 

THE  THREE  ELEMENTS  WHICH  ENTER  INTO  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  NATURE. 

And  now  we  summarize  together  the  three  constituent  elements 
which  form  the  Theology  of  Nature.     They  are: 

I.  The  first,  or  the  Religious  Law  of  Nature,  corresponding  to 
the  first  table  of  the  law  of  God. 

II.  The  second,  or  the  Moral  Law  of  Nature,  corresponding  to 
the  second  table  of  the  law  of  God. 

HI.  The  Gospel  Law  of  Nature,  as  seen  in  the  works  of  God; 
the  providences  of  God ;  and  in  various  ways,  the  teachings  of  God,  as 
discerned  in  human  history  and  contained  in  human  experience. 

According  to  their  regard  or  disregard  of  these  three  laws  are  the 
sons  of  men  to  be  tried,  to  be  judged,  and  to  be  condemned  or  exoner- 

23 


68  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

ated.  Of  these  three  the  most  awfully  momentous  is  the  third.  The 
first  two  involve  a  sentence  of  death ;  the  third  one  involves  deliverance 
from  the  fiist  two,  or  a  confirmation  of  their  sentence — a  hf e  eternal  or 
a  death  eternal.  Later  we  shall  have  to  do  with  the  marvellously 
greater  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  but  at  present  we  are  concerned  only 
with  the  workings  of  the  Gospel  of  Nature. 

APPLICATION  TO  THE  MEN  OF  ANTEDILUVIAN  TIMES. 

That  the  men  of  the  antediluvian  world  were  swept  away  by  a 
flood  brought  upon  the  world  of  the  ungodly  by  a  long  suffering  and 
offended  God,  is  a  fact  of  sacred  history.  Old  and  young,  children 
and  infants,  shared  in  a  common  destruction.  Was  this  visitation  an 
outburst  of  caprice  on  the  part  of  God?  Surely  it  was  not.  That 
which  was  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  coming  on  was  not  of  sudden 
caprice.  It  was  very  premeditated  and  deliberate  and  formally  an- 
nounced beforehand.  Was  it  an  infliction  on  men  not  conscious  of 
their  violation  of  moral  law?  It  surely  was  not.  Men  cannot  plead 
ignorance  who  have  been  warned  for  a  hundred  and  twenty  years. 
There  was  a  law  that  had  been  broken,  and  we  have  no  difficulty  in 
finding  it.  Were  they  cut  off  without  a  single  chance  of  escape,  and 
without  some  sort  of  a  respite  to  allow  them  time  to  think  and  act? 
Again,  surely  not.  To  say  so  or  to  imply  such  a  thing  would  be  an  im- 
peachment of  God's  justice  and  fair  dealing,  in  the  one  case,  and  a 
denial  of  any  tenderness  and  mercy  in  his  nature  in  the  other  case.  If 
the  flood  was  an  unwarranted  severity,  and  a  precipitate  and  unjustifi- 
able harshness,  the  character  of  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  is  smirched 
at  the  very  start.  Were  they  tried  without  law,  condemned  without 
law,  sentenced  without  law,  and  executed  without  law?  Assuredly 
they  were  not.  Everything  was  in  accord  with  the  strictest  law  and 
the  highest  equity,  and  then  nothing  was  done  Until  a  wonderful  and 
long  continued  opportunity  was  given  to  avert  the  judgment,  but 
which  was  treated  with  neglect  and  contempt. 

24 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  69 

GROUNDS  OF  THE  CONDEMNATION  OF  THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD. 

I.  They  were  guilty  of  a  total  disregard  of  the  first  great  re- 
quirement of  the  moral  nature, — that  they  should  fear,  honor  and  obey 
the  great  Creator  who  had  made  them. 

That  they  knew  about  God  is  incontestible.  Thej^  were  as  yet 
very  near  that  early  period  when  their  great  father  Adam  had  been  a 
personal  companion  and  a  personal  pupil  of  God.  That  Adam  was 
thus  in  familiar  converse  with  the  infinitely  wise  Creator,  not  merely 
for  a  few  years,  but  in  all  probability  for  many  years  possibly,  what 
would  be  a  lifetime  or  more  than  a  lifetime  in  our  day,  can  hardly  be 
questioned.  The  work  alone  of  naming  the  animals  made  to  pass  be- 
fore him  would  require  years  of  study  and  observation  of  their  natures 
and  habits  in  order  that  the  naming  should  have  significance.  Adam 
lived  nine  hundred  and  thirty  years.  His  own  knowledge  of  God  must 
have  been  made  known  to  multitudes  of  his  descendants.  Besides  this 
they  had  their  own  double  law  of  nature,  which  taught  them  their  own 
duty  towards  God  and  towards  men.  That  they  were  utterly  regard- 
less of  that  duty  is  manifest  from  the  testimony  of  Enoch.  He  was 
the  seventh  from  Adam.  In  his  day  defection  from  God  had  made 
fearful  progress.  And  Enoch  also  the  seventh  from  Adam  prophesies 
of  them,  saying:  "The  Lord  cometh  with  ten  thousand  of  his  saints  to 
execute  judgment  on  all  and  to  convince  all  that  are  ungodly  among 
them  of  all  their  ungodly  deeds  which  they  have  committed,  and  of  all 
their  hard  speeches  which  ungodly  sinners  have  spoken  against  him." 

The  striking  points  in  this  terrible  announcement  were  that  they 
had  a  clear  apprehension  of  God  as  a  personal  being — that  they  not 
only  acted  against  him  but  complained  of  him  and  villified  him  per- 
sonally in  hard  speeches.  The  frequency  with  which  the  v/ord  un- 
godly is  used  shows  the  nature  of  their  defection.  They  were  not 
Godly.  God  would  judge  them  not  only  for  what  they  are,  and  ought 
not  to  be,  but  for  what  they  are  not  but  ought  to   be.     Furthermore 

25 


70  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

they  were  not  to  be  under  condemnation ;  they  were  already  under  con- 
demnation. Ten  thousand  executioners  were  ready  to  execute  judg- 
ment upon  them.  And  this  did  not  include  all  their  wickedness.  As 
yet  there  were  the  violations  of  the  second  tablet  to  come  in.  They 
were  sentenced  to  death,  for  the  one  single  and  sufficient  reason  that 
they  were  not  godly  but  were  disobedient  towards  God  and  maligned 
him,  and  were  contemptuous  towards  him,  paying  no  attention  to  what 
he  said. 

II.  They  were  guilty  of  a  total  and  conternptuous  disregard  of 
the  second  great  requirement  of  their  moral  nature,  that  they  should 
love  their  neighbors  as  themselves. 

Here  again  they  needed  not  to  go  outside  of  themselves  to  find  the 
law.  It  is  written  within,  the  same  as  the  fii'st  law.  Every  man  has 
a  copy  for  himself.  Some  hundreds  of  years  later  than  Enoch's  day 
we  are  made  acquainted  with  the  facts  of  the  second  count  in  the  in- 
dictment. Disloyalty  to  God  precedes  wrong-doing  towards  man; 
the  latter  is  sure  to  follow  the  former.  And  it  is  always  so  in  human 
history.  There  never  can  be  any  true  and  abiding  love  for  man  which 
is  not  based  upon  a  previous  love  to  God.  "The  earth  also  was  corrupt 
before  God  (violation  of  the  first  table)  and  the  earth  was  filled  with 
violence  (violation  of  the  second  table) ."  And  now  the  time  had  come 
of  which  God  had  said:  "My  spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  man! 
A  world  filled  with  wicked,  God-hating  men  and  with  man-hating 
violent  men,  is  the  picture  now  given  to  us  of  the  state  of  mankind. 
The  law  of  brotherhood  was  trampled  under  foot,  and  now  for  a 
second  reason  it  became  necessary  to  destroy  such  a  race.  But  there 
was  still  a  third  reason  yet  to  come. 

III.  They  were  guilty  of  despising  the  Gospel  of  Nature  which 
meanwhile  had  been  made  known  to  them,  partly  by  direct  announce- 
me7it  and  partly  by  providential  manifestations.  As  already  stated 
(and  we  cannot  emphasize  the  fact  too  strongly),  sentence  of  death 
impends  immediately  as  soon  as  the  offence  is  committed.     The  of- 

26 


Part  II J  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  71 

fender  has  no  right  to  ask  for  a  moment's  clemency  or  respite.  If, 
therefore,  respite  obtains  we  may  know  it  is  because  some  change  of 
condition  has  taken  place.  Suspension  of  judgment  is  a  matter  of 
grace,  not  of  right.  In  the  divine  purpose  God  had  included  a  pro- 
vision of  mercy  which  antedated  the  fall — a  promise  not  extended  to 
the  angelic  host.  "The  end  of  all  flesh  is  come  before  me";  that  was 
the  sentence  of  death.  "Yet  his  days  shall  be  an  hundred  and  twenty 
years."  That  was  the  respite  granted  to  allow  him  to  avail  himself  of 
the  gospel  provision. 


THE   GOSPEL   AMONG   THE   ANTEDILUVIANS. 

They  had :     I.     The  Gospel  of  Promise. 

It  was  a  clearly  stated  and  full  rounded  gospel  preached  to  that 
ancient  world.  It  was  first  announced  by  God  himself.  "And  I  will 
put  enmity  between  thee  and  the  woman  and  between  thy  seed  and  her 
seed:  it  shall  bruise  th}^  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel."  Beyond 
this  vague  utterance  that  a  deliverer  should  come  and  that  he  would  be 
a  child  of  the  woman,  there  was  nothing  definite.  Where,  when  and 
how  was  not  revealed.  It  was  a  gospel  of  promise  and  a  gospel  not  com- 
prehended beyond  the  mere  fact.  But  because  it  was  a  belief  in  what 
God  had  said  it  was  of  the  very  essence  of  saving  faith.  By  it,  so  far 
as  we  know,  Adam  and  Eve  were  saved.  When  her  first  child  was 
born  Eve  supposed  it  was  the  promised  deliverer  and  said,  "I  have 
gotten  the  man  that  is  to  be,"  or  "I  have  gotten  the  coming  one." 
This  became  a  designation  of  the  Messiah.  "Behold  he  that  cometh." 
"I  am  he  that  cometh,"  "Ho  Erkomenos."  The  Coming  One.  Christ 
has  been  "the  Coining  One" — is  nov/  "the  Coming  One,"  and  ever  will 
be  "the  Coming  One." 

They  had:    II.  The  Gospel  of  Sacrifice. 

This  followed  on  the  heels  of  the  Promise.  It  was  a  tremendous 
stride  in  advance.     When  Adam  and  Eve  saw  their  nakedness  they 

27 


72  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

sewed  fig  leaves  together  and  made  them  aprons.  "But  the  Lord 
God  made  them  coats  of  skins."  Where  did  these  skins  come  from? 
Life  had  to  be  taken  in  order  to  get  them.  God  himself  had  to  pro- 
vide a  covering.  Thus  the  idea  of  substitution  was  taught  them  from 
the  start,  and  also  of  an  expiating  sacrifice.  God  himself  impressed 
on  Cain  the  place  of  an  expiation  and  the  necessity  of  an  expiation. 
That  this  expiating  by  offerings  continued  to  be  made  during  the  en- 
tire antediluvian  period  is  indisputable.  Though  neglected  by  the 
many  thej'^  were  regarded  by  the  few  (Abel  among  them) ,  who  were 
saved  thereby. 

The  all-important  place  given  to  them  in  the  theological  concep- 
tion of  the  time  is  apparent  from  the  requisition  on  Noah  to  take 
clean  animals  into  the  ark  by  sevens,  while  other  kinds  went  by  twos. 
The  distinction  betw^een  clean  and  unclean,  therefore,  antedates 
Moses,  and  must  have  been  highly  elaborated  among  the  devout  of  the 
Antediluvian  period.  This  is  further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  at  a 
certain  stage  of  the  history  the  growing  defection  from  Jehovah  was 
arrested  and  now  they  began  to  organize  themselves  into  a  religous 
association  for  the  restoration  of  Jehovah  worship, — the  first  associa- 
tion of  the  kind  in  human  history. 

Further  emphasis  is  given  to  the  significance  and  transcendent 
importance  of  the  sacrificial  system  as  an  education  in  gospel  truth  by 
the  fact  that  as  soon  as  Noah  came  out  of  the  ark  he  resumed  sacrifice 
as  an  expiation.  His  sacrifices  were  accepted  by  God  and  a  new  as- 
surance given  that  condemnation  could  be  and  would  be  set  aside  by 
means  of  applied  sacrifice. 

They  had:     III.     T'he  Gospel  preached  to  Cain. 

Adam's  sin  was  a  violation  of  the  first  law  written  on  the  heart — 
and  was  a  sin  against  God.  The  sin  of  Cain  w^as  a  sin  against  the 
second  law  written  on  the  heart,  and  was  a  sin  against  man,  and  that 
man  his  own  brother.  As  in  Adam's  case,  the  Gospel  of  Mercy  was 
proclaimed  even  before  the  sentence  of  condemnation  was  pronounced 

28 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  73 

— so  with  Cain,  his  attention  was  called  to  the  promise  for  mercy  and 
acceptance  before  any  violence  occurred.  If  he  did  well  would  he  not 
be  accepted  on  that  account,  that  is  for  his  own  sake?  and  if  he  did  not 
well  was  there  not  a  sin  oiFering  at  the  door  to  be  availed  of  at  once? 
Thus  the  gospel  was  preached  to  Cain  before  he  became  a  murderer. 

And  then,  after  he  became  a  murderer,  it  was  preached  afresh 
with  wonderful  accompaniments  of  grace.  People  would  kill  him,  he 
said.  So  God  put  a  mark  upon  Cain  that  people  should  not  kill  him  as 
he  deserved;  a  more  significant  intimation  could  not  be  given  that  God 
was  ready  to  extend  mercy  to  him.  He  should  be  punished,  but  the 
extreme  penalty  of  broken  law  should  not  be  visited  upon  him.  And 
then,  at  the  door,  as  long  as  he  lived,  the  sin  offering  ever  lay  ready. 

The  mercy  extended  to  Cain  was  appealed  to  several  hundred 
years  afterwards  by  Lamech.  If  Cain  was  to  have  mercy  much  more 
should  Lamech  have  mercy.  He  reasoned  logically;  with  God  mercy 
to  one  meant  mercy  to  another,  indeed,  mercy  to  all.  And  so  we  see  the 
gospel  was  well  promulgated  several  hundred  years  after  the  crime  of 
Cain  was  committed.    Even  a  man  slayer  had  a  gospel. 

They  had:     IV.     The  Gospel  of  the  Ark. 

But  the  crowning  manifestation  of  the  antediluvian  gospel  and 
of  its  abihty  to  save  was  given  in  connection  with  the  Ark.  God  now 
made  an  appeal  to  the  men  of  that  generation  based  on  their  love  of 
hf e — the  most  powerful  that  can  be  made  to  a  human  being.  It  was 
announced  that  God  intended  to  destroy  the  world  because  of  its 
wickedness.  Nevertheless  men  might  be  saved  if  they  would.  Notice 
was  given  of  how  the  deliverance  could  be  effected.  A  flood  would 
sweep  the  earth,  but  an  ark  could  ride  over  the  flood.  Therefore 
their  salvation  was  to  come  through  an  Ark.  Noah  believed  the  pre- 
diction because  it  came  from  God.  He  was  moved  by  fear  and  immedi- 
ately set  about  building  an  ark  for  himself.  He  was  to  have  plenty  of 
time  for  it,  for  God  would  keep  the  sentence  suspended  until  all  the 
ark  room  that  would  be  called  for  could  be  provided. 

29 


74  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

But  Noah  was  more  than  an  ark  builder  to  save  his  own  house. 
He  was  a  preacher  of  righteousness ;  that  meant  that  he  was  a  preacher 
of  repentance  to  the  whole  world  around  him.  God  appointed  him  to 
preach  and  to  warn  men.  Salvation  by  an  ark!  Salvation  by  an  ark! 
Tliis  was  his  perpetual  refrain,  day  in  and  day  out,  year  in  and  year 
out  for  a  hundred  and  twenty  long  years.  We  are  told  "the  long  suf- 
fering of  God  waited" — waited  to  see  if  anybody  would  repent,  if 
anyone  would  believe, — if  anybody  else  would  go  to  building  arks. 
Noah  preached,  and  Noah  sawed  and  Noah  fitted  timbers  and  Noah 
hammered  away.  His  faith  and  his  works  wrought  together.  He  had 
no  monopoly  of  the  timber  of  the  forest  nor  ownership  of  all  the  tools 
of  the  shipyard.  They  could  do  it  if  he  could,  and  the  fact  that  God 
waited  and  waited  and  waited  was  proof  positive  that  he  would  be  just 
as  good  to  any  of  them  as  he  was  to  Noah,  if  they  would  exercise 
Noah's  faith. 

The  points  of  Noah's  preaching  were  that  men  have  sinned, — 
that  God  has  decreed  his  sentence  of  death, — but  now  he  was  gracious 
to  men  if  they  would  only  believe  and  go  to  work.  The  first  probation 
under  Adam  was  an  awful  failure,  but  now  they  were  to  have  another 
one  under  grace.  Therefore,  "Save  yourselves  from  this  untoward 
generation,"  was  the  preaching  of  Noah,  as  it  afterwards  was  the 
preaching  of  Peter.  Salvation  by  the  old  law  of  righteousness  by 
works  was  gone  forever,  but  salvation  by  the  new  law  of  righteousness 
by  faith  was  within  every  man's  reach.  This  was  the  gospel  of  Noah 
and  the  Gospel  of  the  Ark.  What  more  and  what  better  could  any  of 
them  wish  for  than  was  preached  by  this  mighty  evangelist  who  led 
off  in  the  number  of  those  who  had  "the  spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in 
them?"  That  is  plain  speech.  It  was  not  simply  Noah  that  spoke;  it 
was  "the  spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them,"  the  "prehistoric"  Christ, 
which  was  preaching  repentance  and  faith  for  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years. 

30 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  75 

WHY    THE    OLD    WORLD    PERISHED. 

It  is  plain  enough.  It  is  not  because  they  had  no  gospel  but  be- 
cause they  did  not  believe  what  gospel  they  had.  Perhaps  they 
thought  that  such  an  undertaking  was  too  big  even  for  the  Almighty ; 
perhaps  they  had  their  ideas,  as  moderns  have,  about  "fixed  law";  and 
that  "miracles  were  contrary  to  human  experience," — and  they  dis- 
carded the  supernatural  on  that  account.  But  whatever  be  the  reason, 
they  took  no  stock  in  Xoah's  prediction, — they  kept  on  buying  and 
selling,  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  and  rollicking  away.  When 
at  last  God  shut  in  Noah  and  aU  the  animals  that  were  ready  to  go, 
and  when  the  windows  of  heaven  began  to  be  open  and  the  fountains 
of  the  great  deep  to  be  broken  up,  it  was  then  too  late  to  go  to  boat 
building,  and  so  they  all  were  lost.  They  perished  not  because  of  the 
broken  law  of  the  first  table,  for  that  could  have  been  remedied;  not 
because  of  the  broken  law  of  the  second  table,  for  that  could  have  been 
remedied, — but  because  they  despised  the  gospel  they  had  within  their 
reach,  and  which  was  sufficient  for  their  salvation. 

THE  QUESTION  OF  A  SECOND  PROBATION. 

It  is  contended,  and  to  this  contention  all  heartily  agree,  that 
while  the  sinner  has  no  right  in  equity  to  ask  a  second  probation  other 
than  the  one  he  had  in  his  father  Adam,  yet  God,  in  his  goodness  and 
grace  has  promised  and  provided  for  all  the  children  of  Adam  a  sec- 
ond probation,  one  of  the  supreme  wonders  in  the  economy  of  salva- 
tion. Men  may  recover  under  grace  what  they  lost  under  law.  The 
sinner  is  allowed  a  new  trial  after  the  first  one  has  failed.  The  rela- 
tion between  the  old  trial  of  man  while  yet  in  a  sinless  state,  and  the 
new  trial  granted  after  he  had  become  a  sinner,  is  also  a  supreme  won- 
der. The  real  and  decisive  trial  is  not  in  the  prior  one  but  in  the  after 
one,  and  it  may  be  correctly  affirmed  that  the  first  trial  is  merely  a 
stepping  stone  to  the  second  one. 

31 


76  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  "PROBATION?" 

It  is  necessary  in  order  to  a  correct  apprehension  of  this  whole 
subject  that  the  question  be  stated  and  answered, — What  constitutes 
a  probation?  Men  who  give  their  opinions  in  the  matter  often  fall 
into  the  gravest  mistakes.  First  of  all  the  word  "probation"  as  usually- 
apprehended,  is  itself  misleading.  The  word  usually  implies  a  process, 
longer  or  shorter,  by  which  character  is  developed  and  tested  as  to  its 
quality  and  its  endurance.  Starting  out  with  this  erroneous  concep- 
tion, to  begin  with,  men  proceed  to  determine  times  and  seasons  and 
continuances  of  the  process  which  they  think  ought  to  take  place. 
Many  speak  of  Adam's  probation,  and  think  it  may  have  continued 
many  j^ears,  and  that  the  real  object  of  his  probation  was  to  work  out 
a  fixed  and  determinative  character  which  should  decide  his  future  posi- 
tion. It  is  the  first  conception  we  have  of  "Salvation  by  character," 
but  by  no  means  the  last  one.  "Salvation  by  character"  is  not  salva- 
tion by  faith,  and  it  is  not  salvation  by  grace.    It  is  salvation  by  merit. 

In  pursuance  of  this  conception  of  a  probation  these  same  think- 
ers, some  of  them,  have  reasoned  in  this  way: 

They  say  it  is  true  the  first  probation  in  Adam  has  failed,  but  that 
God  in  his  grace  and  goodness  has  been  pleased  to  grant  man  an  op- 
portunity to  retrieve  himself,  which  is  done  by  a  second  probation,  in 
Christ  and  not  in  Adam  any  longer. 

Continuing,  they  say — that  as  the  second  probation  is  in  and 
through  Christ,  therefore  all  men  must  have  an  opportunity  to  hear 
about  what  they  call  "the  historic  Christ/'  that  is,  the  Christ  who  Hved 
and  taught  in  Judea  and  who  died  on  the  cross  at  Jerusalem.  Men, 
they  say,  must  have  as  good  an  opportunity  to  hear  all  about  the  per- 
sonality of  this  Jesus  as  the  Jews  had  who  lived  in  his  day, — that  if 
they  do  not  have  such  an  equal  opportunity  then  they  have  not 
had  a  full  and  fair  probation,  and  if  they  have  not  had  it  in  this  world 
they  must  have  it  in  the  next  world.     To  their  minds  this   process   of 

32 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  77 

reasoning  all  seems  legitimate  and  the  conclusion  unmistakable,  but 
in  reality  it  is  unsound,  full  of  flaws,  and  involving  most  inconginious, 
unscriptural  and  even  absurd  consequences. 


A  MOST  ERRONEOUS   CONCEPTION. 

For  if  this  conclusion  be  accepted,  then  nobody  has  had  "a  full 
and  fair  probation."  Probation  must  follow  probation  after  proba- 
tion in  the  next  world  until  God  has  actually  exhausted  himself  in  fu- 
tile endeavors  to  get  all  sinners  to  come  to  terms — and  there  must  be 
a  regular  stated  ministry  in  the  underworld  at  this  time,  for  multi- 
tudes are  continually  coming  in  who  know  nothing  about  "the  historic 
Christ."  Even  then  in  these  Christian  lands  of  ours  are  those  who 
have  heard  albeit  only  a  few  thousand  or  a  few  hundred  times,  yet  are 
nevertheless  in  gross  ignorance, — their  attention  having  been  so  taken 
up  with  a  hundred  other  things.  Why  should  not  they  also  claim  a 
probation  under  better  circumstances  than  any  that  exist  here.  Fur- 
thermore if  these  views  contain  the  true  solution,  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  God  can  escape  the  charge  of  being  the  author  of  a  set  of  dis- 
jointed schemes  liable  to  all  sorts  of  contingencies,  and  furnishing 
further  an  opportunity  for  finical  casuists  among  seminary  professors 
to  lay  down  for  him  the  rules  by  which  his  administration  of  human  af- 
fairs ought  to  be  guided.  Indeed,  that  sort  of  thing  has  become  very 
common  already.  There  are  plenty  of  critics  more  ready  to  point  at 
God's  duty  to  the  sinner  than  the  sinner's  duty  to  God.  It  is  necessary 
to  avoid  confusion  of  thought,  and  in  order  thereto  the  first  step  is 
to  discard  the  word  "probation'  as  commonly  used. 

Instead  thereof  substitute  some  word  signifying  "test"  or  "trial," 
and  we  shall  be  nearer  the  purpose  of  God  and  to  the  divine  idea  of  what 
we  have  been  accustomed  to  call  a  "probation."  God's  purpose  in  the 
two  trials  of  Adam  was  not  character  making — that  is  something  which 
comes  later — but  for  the  determination  of  choice  which  leads  to  charac- 

33 


78  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

ter  making.  A  "test"  or  a  "trial"  may  be  single  or  immediate,  and 
then  over  with,  or  it  may  be  repeated  and  long  continued,  but  whether 
long  or  short,  the  purpose  is  choice  determining  and  not  character 
making,  Abraham  was  tried — not  to  make  character,  but  to  determine 
the  character  that  was  in  him ;  Joseph  was  tried  in  the  same  way ;  Job, 
also;  and  still  more  conspicuously  the  Lord  Jesus  when  he  was  led  of 
the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tested  of  the  devil;  and  the  saints 
are  tried  also  prior  to  their  receiving  the  blessing.  In  exactly  the  same 
manner  Adam  was  tried  as  to  his  obedience  of  his  will  in  the  garden 
of  Eden,  and  then  he  was  again  tried  immediately  afterwards  as  to  his 
acceptance  of  the  promise.  One  trial  being  over  and  lost,  the  other 
took  its  place  without  an  interregnum  and  was  won  by  Adam  and  Eve, 
as  is  manifest  from  the  Scripture,  and  certainly  by  Abel  and  Seth  and 
a  long  line  that  followed. 

THE  FIRST  AND  SECOND  TRIALS  OF  ADAM  AND  EVE  COMPARED. 

In  these  two  trials  there  were  marked  features  of  resemblance 
and  marked  features  of  difference. 

(1)  They  were  both  of  them  essentially  trials  of  faith;  in  the 
second  trial  that  is  plain  enough,  but  it  is  equally  so  when  one  comes 
to  look  into  the  substructure  of  the  first.  We  speak  of  it  as  a  test  of 
obedience  to  a  positive  command  not  to  eat  of  a  certain  tree — but 
underlying  that  was  a  belief  of  what  God  had  said  about  the  peril  of 
eating  that  fruit.  The  trial  was  indeed  a  test  of  obedience  to  com- 
mand, but  it  was  a  test  of  faith  back  of  that  command;  Paul,  in  his 
vocabulary  of  terms,  speaks  of  the  obedience  of  faith  as  the  highest  of 
all  the  obediences,  active  and  passive.  It  follows  that  the  test  submitted 
to  him  before  his  fall  and  the  test  submitted  to  him  after  the  fall  are 
generically  the  same.  God  has  not  changed  the  ultimate  form  of  his 
requirement — thus  implying  a  sort  of  failure  and  disappointment — 
but  he  continues  it  under  new  conditions  which  render  compliance 
more  illustrious  to  himself. 

34 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  79 

(2)  The  new  trials  were  especially  adapted  to  the  new  condi- 
tions in  which  the  offending  parties  had  placed  themselves,  thus  show- 
ing the  immutability  of  the  divine  counsel  even  though  Adam  had 
sinned.  The  test  in  the  first  case  was  exactly  suited  to  the  circum- 
stances of  a  person  whose  nature  was  holy  and  whose  moral  powers 
were  in  full  strength.  The  test  in  the  second  case  was  exactly  suited 
to  the  circumstances  of  a  person  whose  nature  had  become  unholy  and 
his  moral  power  weakened. 

(3)  The  antediluvians  who  fell  in  Adam  had  some  advantages 
in  making  a  choice  which  the  sinless  Adam  did  not  have ;  and  all  man- 
kind since  then  have  an  accumulated  incentive  to  a  wise  choice  which 
even  the  antediluvians  did  not  have.  Adam  had  been  told  he  should 
die,  but  he  had  seen  no  one  in  a  death  agony.  He  had  no  conception 
of  what  God  meant  in  that  terrible  communication;  nor  did  he  have 
that  kind  of  conviction  which  arises  from  seeing  a  thing  verified  before 
his  eyes.  But  afterwards  Adam  did  have  that  evidence.  In  his 
hundreds  of  years  before  the  flood  he  must  have  seen  many  die  and 
he  knew  what  death  meant.  If  it  were  now  some  great  moral  action 
required  of  him  for  which  he  had  no  longer  the  moral  quahfications  he 
would  have  been  pitiably  helpless,  but  it  was  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Again  it  was  simply  choice!  Choose  for  yourself!  Choose  whom  you 
will  believe !  Choose  whom  you  will  serve.  It  may  be  added  this  ever 
has  been  and  is  now  the  test,  and  will  be  the  test  from  generation  to 
generation. 

THE  ANTEDILUVIANS  THEN  HAVE  HAD  THEIR  SECOND  PROBATION. 

They  had  it  in  their  own  day  and  generation,  here,  in  this  world, 
and  therefore  it  is  not  to  be  repeated  in  the  next  world.  It  began  the 
moment  the  other  one  ended  so  disastrously.  It  was  a  probation  (if 
we  still  wish  to  use  that  word)  which  God  considered  sufficient.  He 
has  not  promised  a  third  one  to  them  or  to   anybody  else.      Then  as 

35 


80  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

now,  and  now  as  then,  men  have  the  opportunity  to  choose  for  them- 
selves—  (every  man  for  hhnself)  whether  they  will  admit  or  deny  the 
justice  of  God's  charges  against  themselves,  and  whether  they  will  ac- 
cept or  reject  such  mxans  of  salvation  as  God  has  placed  within  their 
reach.  The  whole  trial  (or  probation,  to  use  the  old  term)  is  reducable 
to  one  answer — ''yes"  or  "no"  and  can  be  settled  without  delay  at  once. 

"unto  all  and  upon  all." 

In  this  citation  from  Romans  III:  22,  is  set  forth  a  profound 
principle  in  the  divine  administration.  It  involves  a  parallel  of  tre- 
mendous scope  and  application. 

The  effects  of  Adam's  sin  were  not  limited  to  his  personal  self. 
They  included  and  extended  to  all  his  posterity  to  the  latest  generation 
"unto  all  and  upon  all" — not  only  to  them  but  upon  them.  It  was  like 
a  wave  of  lava  which  comes  first  of  all  '^'to"  and  then  ''upon"  completely 
covering  up,  and  that,  too,  without  the  knowledge  or  consent  of  that 
posterity.  Does  this  federal  relation  seem  unjust?  To  the  minds  of 
men  it  often  does.  What  they  demand  is  this.  They  say  ''Let  us  each 
stand  for  ourselves."  If  we  have  an  equally  independent  opportunity 
and  fail,  then  we  admit  our  condemnation  will  be  just. 

Be  it  so.  That  is  just  what  God  has  provided  for;  every  man  shall 
stand  or  fall  by  his  own  choice,  and  it  is  accomplished  in  this  way. 

If  by  one  relation  of  federal  headship  a  universal  wave  of  destruc- 
tion is  made  to  flow  "to  and  upon"  all  of  our  entire  race — by  another 
relation  of  federal  headship  another  universal  wave  of  mercy  is  made 
to  flow  "to  and  upon"  all  of  that  same  race.  If  the  first  came  without 
the  knowledge  or  participation  of  the  parties  involved,  so  also  does  the 
second.  The  individual  free  will  comes  in  in  connection  with  the  sec- 
ond. Man  gets  into  sin  without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  but  if  he 
stays  there  it  will  have  to  be  with  his  knowledge  or  consent.  A  com- 
plete deliverance  from  the  consequences  of  Adam's  sin  is  within  his 

36 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  81 

reach.  He  refuses  to  avail  himself  of  it — therefore  he  makes  the  sin 
his  own.  Adam  was  to  blame  for  getting  into  a  place  he  knew  so  little 
about.  How  much  more  his  posterity  are  to  blame  for  choosing  to  con- 
tinue in  when  they  know  so  much  about  it.  Death  comes  "to  and 
upon"  all  through  Adam.  Life  comes  to  and  upon  all  through  Christ. 
But  a  positive  acceptance  is  required  of  all  who  are  capable  of  accept- 
ing. The  charge  against  Adam  is  choosing  sin ;  the  charge  against  his 
posterity  is  choosing  to  remain  in  sin  by  rejecting  the  oiFer  of  mercy. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  believe  in  the  salvation  of  infants — 
of  all  the  infants  that  ever  lived.  Salvation  comes  "to  and  upon"  them 
through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus  being  applied  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  himself  directly  without  their  refusal,  which  means  with- 
out their  knowledge  or  consent  at  the  time. 

These  facts  are  set  forth  by  the  Apostle  in  Romans  V.  One  man 
sinned,  and  death  came  to  and  upon  all.  One  man  obeyed  and  hfe 
came  to  and  upon  all  who  do  not  reject  or  resist  the  Spirit  as  he  works 
upon  them,  the  striving  of  the  spirit,  as  God  himself  put  it  in  Noah's 
day.     "My  spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  man." 

Does  this  view  of  the  case  lend  countenance  to  the  doctrine  of 
Universalism?  Not  the  least  whatever.  A  pardon  may  be  granted,  but 
until  it  is  accepted  it  is  no  pardon.  It  must  be  accepted  in  God's  own 
appointed  way.  Negligence  or  non-compliance  cancels  a  pardon  al- 
ways by  the  individual's  own  choice. 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  NATURE. 
AJNIONG  POST  DILUVIANS. 

The  new  world  started  out  with  that  capital  stock  of  religious  as- 
certainment and  experience  possessed  by  Noah,  the  entire  stock  of  a 
previous  world.  Of  itself  that  must  have  been  great.  His  knowledge 
of  God  was  great.  His  knowledge  of  beginnings  was  great.  Such 
documentary  records  of  the  creative  process  as  had  come  down  from 

37 


82  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

Enoch  would  be  in  his  hands.  The  man  who  built  the  Ark  was  a  man 
of  scholarly  attainments;  without  them  he  could  not  have  built  the 
Ark.  Noah  therefore  was  an  intrepid  worshipper  of  Jehovah.  His 
immediate  posterity,  too,  must  have  been  with  him  fully  informed 
to  begin  with.  And  then  they  had  written  on  their  hearts  the  two  great 
self-luminant  sources  of  light  and  impulse,  the  primal  "law  of  re- 
ligion" and  the  secondary  "law  of  morality" — continually  replacing 
the  wear  and  tear  on  their  better  natures ; — laws  which  were  self-acting 
and  self -generating  as  already  stated.  To  their  religious  and  moral 
impulse  a  tremendous  emphasis  must  have  been  given  by  the  experi- 
ence of  the  flood.  Naturally  they  would  tell  it  to  the  generations  fol- 
lowing, and  naturally,  even  without  an  intimation  from  revelation  and 
purely  from  the  light  of  nature  which  included  all  the  deductions  of 
human  reason  and  human  experience,  that  generation  ought  to  have 
been  a  God  fearing  generation. 

From  that  time  on  and  down  to  the  present  the  religious  and  the 
moral  history  of  mankind,  taken  apart  from  revealed  religion,  and 
considered  solely  as  a  product  of  the  Theology  of  Nature,  is  divided 
into  distinct  stages,  following  and  also  overlapping  each  other. 

I.  The  stage  of  another  rapid  religious  and  moral  degeneracy — 
of  fading  light  and  gathering  darkness,  culminating  in  a  fearful  de- 
pravity which  again  brought  down  upon  them  the  judgment  of  heaven. 

II.  The  stage  of  Heathen  Constructiveness.  Having  lost  their 
knowledge  of  the  true  God  they  begin  to  construct  religions  of  their 
own  with  gods  of  their  own. 

III.  The  stage  of  philosophical  speculation  and  inquiry.  The 
more  thoughtful  minds  among  men,  not  satisfied  with  the  diction  of 
heathenism,  began  their  attempts  to  find  the  beginning  of  things  and 
to  solve  "the  riddle  of  the  universe"  thousands  of  years  before  HfEckel 
was  born. 

IV.  The  stage  of  scientific  allegation  and  ascertainment.    This 

38 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  83 

is  almost  wholly  a  modern  phase,  in  which  we  have  as  yet  but  barely 
entered  and  in  which  men  are  still  burning  their  bellows  in  the  fire. 

The  history  of  these  four  stages  of  himian  thought  and  experience 
will  compass  the  entire  domain  of  the  Theology  of  Nature  taken  apart 
from  the  Theology  of  Revelation. 

But  we  have  also,  beginning  far  back  in  the  remote  antiquity,  an- 
other kind  of  Theology  called  Revealed  Theology,  and  developing 
along  side  of  the  Theology  of  Nature.  To  this  revealed  theology  we 
come  in  close  order  of  time  and  sequence,  but  at  present  we  are  to  deal 
with  the  Theology  of  Nature  alone. 


I. 

The  stage  of  another  rapid  religious  and  moral  de- 
generacy;— of  fading  hght  and  gathering  darkness, 
culminating  in  a  fearful  depravity,  compelling  a  sec- 
ond visitation  of  judgment  from  heaven,  the  first  judg- 
ment being  of  water,  the  second  of  fire  and  brimstone. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  terrible  lesson  of  the  flood  would 
have  shaped  the  development  of  the  new  humanity,  and  that  men  would 
have  recoiled  from  a  repetition  of  the  old  sinfulness.  But  it  was  not 
to  be  so.  Men  were  to  have  a  fresh  lesson  in  the  deeply  rooted  nature 
of  human  weakness  and  corruption,  and  the  manifestations  were  to 
multiply  until  God  could  no  longer  endure  it,  without  a  downpour  of 
wrath. 

Noah  became  drunk.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Noah  was  a  drunkard.  He  seems  to  have  been  simply  unintentionally 
careless  and  indiscreet.  But  his  indiscretion  furnished  an  opportunity 
for  an  exhibition  of  coarse  and  vulgar  depravity  on  the  part  of  Ham, 
which  was  in  itself  a  revelation,  and  which  boded  ill  for  coming  human 
nature  which  had  already  become  leprous. 

39 


84  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

The  Bible  itself  does  not  furnish  us  details  of  the  spread  of  de- 
pravity in  these  first  early  ages  after  the  flood.  But  it  must  have  been 
rapid  and  fearful.  Such  a  coarse  nature  as  that  of  Ham  tainted  the 
tribes,  kindreds  and  types  that  rose  one  after  another.  Such  con- 
temporary secular  history  as  we  have  had  transmitted  to  us,  all  con- 
firms the  sacred  writ.  Virtune  waned  rapidly  and  vice  waxed  rapidly. 
That  much  we  are  sure  of. 

After  between  four  and  five  hundred  years  the  Spirit  of  God 
drew  aside  the  curtain  just  once,  to  let  us  see  how  inconceivably  de- 
praved the  human  race  had  become.  Adapting  himself  to  human 
methods  and  human  phraseology,  God  represents  himself  as  going 
down  on  a  tour  of  inspection.  "Because  the  cry  of  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
roh  are  great,  and  because  their  sin  is  very  grievous,  I  will  go  down 
now  and  see  whether  they  have  done  altogether  according  to  the  cry  of 
it  which  is  come  unto  me,  and  if  not  I  will  know."  Of  course  the 
Omniscient  knew,  but  he  conforms  himself  to  human  administrative 
order  in  his  mode  of  procedure.  Then  follows  the  awful  revelation  of 
Sodom,  and  then  the  overthrow  of  the  cities  when  the  smoke  of  the 
country  went  up  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace.  The  curtain  drops,  but 
a  presage  and  a  precedent  are  entered  on  the  books,  indicative  of  what 
will  take  place  in  the  far  distant  future. 

LIGHT  THEY  HAD  BUT  THEY  W^ALKED  NOT  IN  IT. 

Meanwhile  during  this  same  period,  and  extending  far  beyond  it, 
are  the  multipHed  evidences  of  the  light  sufficient  to  guide  them  in 
a  pathway  of  peace  if  they  had  been  disposed  to  desire  it.  But  then, 
as  at  a  later  day,  they  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  and  would  not 
come  to  the  light  lest  their  deeds  should  be  reproved. 

LINGERING  RAYS  ON  THE  MOUNTAIN  TOPS. 

First  of  all  the  fading  Hght  of  the  knowledge  of  a  living  God 

40 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  85 

lingered  in  various  quarters  as  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun  linger  around 
a  mountain  top,  while  the  shadows  thicken  below.  These  rays  lingered 
long  after  the  overthrow  of  Sodom  as  well  as  before.  Pharoah,  King 
of  Egypt,  recognized  the  personality  and  power  of  a  living  God  in 
his  day.  Abimelech,  king  of  Gerar,  had  messages  direct  from  God  and 
was  guided  thereby  in  his  duty  towards  God  and  towards  his  fellow 
men.  Balaam  was  clear  visioned,  and  could  tell  about  God  with 
wondrous  vigor.  OiF  in  that  land  of  Moab  where  Balak  dwelt  the 
name  of  Jehovah  was  well  known  long  before  Moses  roamed  the 
Midian  desert.  In  the  land  of  Uz  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  the 
methods  of  his  administration  were  surprisingly  wonderful.  Job  and 
his  friends  were  astute  scholars  in  the  Theology  of  Nature,  as  we  shall 
have  occasion  presently  to  point  out. 

CONFIRM ATION  IN  REMAINS  OF  PRIMITIVE  LITERATURE. 

Confirmation  to  all  this  comes  to  us  in  the  secular  literature  of 
these  primeval  post  diluvians,  which  has  come  down  to  us,  and  there 
is  quite  enough  of  it  to  answer  our  purpose.  While  the  world  was  full 
of  sin,  and  full  of  wickedness,  and  all  manner  of  grossness  and  cruelty, 
yet  the  writers  of  those  days  were  constrained  always  to  magnify  rever- 
ence for  "the  Gods"  and  to  exalt  fair  deahng  among  men.  In  their  his- 
torical annals  and  in  their  poetry  this  characteristic  is  conspicuous. 
That  there  were  vile  writings  in  abundance  is  no  doubt  true,  but  the  re- 
ligious law  and  the  moral  law  within  them  did  not  allow  them  to  trans- 
mit such  things  to  future  generations.  They  have  handed  down  good 
writings  and  not  vile  ones.  This  shows  how  profoundly  operative  was 
that  law  which  God  had  woven  in  their  moral  constitutions  and  which 
as  a  divine  force  unceasingly  impelled  them  to  virtue  and  repelled 
them  from  vice.  So  when  they  went  astray  they  could  not  plead  ig- 
norance ;  nor  could  they  palliate  their  evil  conduct  by  saying  they  lived 
in  an  evil  atmosphere.    Their  own  literature  will  rise  up  in  judgment 

41 


86  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

and  condemn  them.  Their  Horaces,  their  Senecas,  their  Ciceros,  their 
Virgils,  their  Vedas,  their  Analects,  will  witness  against  them.  They 
were  not  ignorant;  they  knew  the  better  if  they  had  chosen  to  follow 
the  better. 

In  the  laws  and  institutes  made  for  the  government  of  society 
and  in  the  regulation  of  interhuman  relations  in  the  enforcement  of 
the  principals  of  justice,  honesty,  truthfulness,  purity  and  the  due 
order  in  the  family  and  the  state,  they  all  indicate  moral  elevation  of 
conception  and  purpose  which  has  made  men  wonder  where  it  all  came 
from. 

POST  DILUVIAN  GOSPEL. 

Paul's  declaration  is  positive  that  God  has  not  left  himself  with- 
out witness  of  his  readiness  to  be  merciful.  When  Noah  went  forth 
from  the  ark,  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  build  an  altar  and  offer 
sacrifices  for  the  expiation  of  sin,  such  as  God  had  taught  Adam  and 
Eve  to  offer.  It  was  at  once  accepted  in  these  words  of  superlative 
hope, — "And  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savour,  and  the  Lord  said  in 
his  heart,  I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground  any  more  for  man's  sake, 
for  the  imagination  of  man's  heart  is  evil  from  his  youth ;  neither  will 
I  again  smite  any  more  every  living  thing  as  I  have  done;  while  the 
earth  remaineth,  seedtime  and  harvest  and  cold  and  heat  and  summer 
and  winter  and  day  and  night  shall  not  cease." 

Thus  the  new  world  began  with  a  gospel  of  wondrOus  breadth; 
no  threatenings  were  included  in  it.  It  was  free  grace  abounding,  and 
that  with  a  full  recognition  of  man's  tendency  to  perversity  and  of  the 
certain  workings  of  his  unregenerate  heart.  Law  and  restriction,  to 
be  sure,  came  in  due  time,  but  gospel  had  precedence  and  the  right  of 
way. 

We  do  not  say  that  a  positive  promise  such  as  Noah  had  is  to  be 
considered  a  part  of  the  gospel  of  nature ;  but  the  evidences  to  support 
that  promise  were  a  part  of  every  man's  every  day  experience.    Seed- 

42 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  87 

time  and  harvest  never  have  ceased;  day  and  night  never  have  inter- 
mitted. No  man  is  ever  more  than  twelve  hours  from  a  sign  post.  All 
human  experience  of  good,  every  act  of  goodness  in  the  day's  round 
prove  the  presence  of  the  grace  of  God,  and  which  in  the  logic  of 
Providence  form  premises  on  which  to  reason  out  an  expectation*  of 
more  grace  and  of  continued  good, — all  this  is  a  part  of  the  gospel  of 
nature.  When  God  provides  premises,  it  is  man's  duty  to  reason  on 
those  premises,  and  his  neglect  to  do  so  forms  a  part  of  his  condemna- 
tion for  rejecting  the  gospel.  The  new  race  started  out  then  with  a 
gospel  and  not  a  code  of  enactments,  and  so  man  was  started  off  right. 
Noah,  a  preacher  of  righteousness  before  the  flood,  could  be  depended 
upon  to  preach  with  the  same  earnestness  the  gospel  of  God  after  the 
flood.  There  could  have  been  only  one  sentiment  among  men  about 
God.  The  air  was  not  murky  then  as  it  is  now,  with  all  manner  of 
quibblings  and  questionings  which  impair  faith  receptivity.  There 
was  no  place  for  skeptics  at  that  time.  God's  bestowments  on  the  new 
race  were  wonderful ;  the  fear  of  it  should  be  on  the  whole  animal  cre- 
ation. Every  living  thing  and  every  green  herb  were  given  into  its 
hands.  Grace  could  do  no  more.  Neither  was  there  any  code  of  laws 
and  requirements  such  as  became  necessary  at  a  later  day  to  keep  men 
within  bounds.  The  preciousness  of  human  hfe  was  to  be  safe- 
guarded. There  was  to  be  a  protection  against  a  repetition  of  the  vio- 
lence of  their  antediluvian  forefathers.  "Whoso  sheddeth  man's 
blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed."  Beyond  that  there  was  no  im- 
position, nor  were  they  hampered  in  any  way  whatever.  They  were 
to  be  left  to  the  guidance  of  that  double  law  within  their  hearts,  to  the 
awfully  solemn  lessons  of  human  experience  in  the  past,  to  their  ap- 
preciation of  the  Divine  goodness,  and  to  the  sense  of  gratitude  and 
love  most  powerfully  appealed  to  when  God  made  over  to  them  the 
whole  earth,  and  set  his  bow  in  the  cloud  as  a  pledge  of  his  mercy.  God 
started  them  ofl",  not  with  whip  and  spur  and  snaffle ;  he  beckoned  them 
with  fruits  and  flowers,  and  with  a  cheery  commission  he  bade  them  go 

43 


88  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

ahead  to  replenish,  to  possess,  and  to  manage  the  whole  earth  for  them- 
selves. Not  before  or  since,  except  when  Christ  Himself  came,  has 
any  man  ever  had  such  a  free  and  generous  gospel  with  such  fullness 
of  specification  and  such  amplitude  of  resource.  Adam  and  Eve  were 
not  sent  forth  so  kindly.  There  was  never  a  word  of  upbraiding,  no 
twitting  them  with  the  sins  of  their  fathers,  though  they  had  to  be 
told  of  them  later, — God  loaded  them  down  with  gifts  and  promises. 
It  would  seem  as  if  he  meant  to  throw  them  on  their  own  manhood, 
and  their  honor  and  gratitude,  as  well  as  their  self-interest,  and  let 
them  do  right  from  voluntary  choice,  and  not  from  compulsion.  He 
anticipated  the  words  of  a  later  day:  "Surely  they  are  children  that 
will  not  He;"  surely  such  transcendent  goodness  will  lead  them  to  per- 
sistent penitence  and  keep  them  loyal.  Alas,  for  poor,  degenerate 
human  nature!  God  knew  how  it  would  be,  but  men  did  not.  So  it 
was  necessary  that  they  should  have  continuous  lessons  in  their  own 
frailty  and  unreliability.  The  tutelage  of  G<)d  was  to  be  kept  up  from 
generation  to  generation  yet  before  God  would  develop  his  own  plan 
of  deliverance. 


UNIVERSALITY  AND  VALUE  OF  POST  DILUVIAN  GOSPEL  GLEAMS. 

We  find  them  everywhere, — among  all  tribes  and  kindi-eds  and 
tongue;  in  a  Vedic  hymn  there  is  an  utterance  of  a  groaning  spirit, 
voicing  forth  its  expectation  of  a  deliverer  whom  Heaven  would  surely 
send  sometime  of  other,  which  reads  like  a  quotation  from  Isaiah. 
Similar  hopes  are  found  in  heathen  literature ;  they  are  often  shadowy, 
but  again  they  are  enough  to  take  hold  of.  In  the  older  China  litera- 
ture an  expectancy  of  hope  in  the  mercy  of  "High  Heaven,"  as  they 
call  it,  is  a  conspicuous  feature.  We  ourselves  have  often  heard 
among  the  wronged  and  the  suffering  the  conviction  poured  out  from 
an  anguished  spirit  toward  heaven  with  a  sigh:  "But  heaven  is  good; 
heaven  is  true;  heaven  is  just,  and  heaven  can  see;  heaven  can  hear; 

44 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  89 

heaven  can  remember;  heaven  will  judge;  indeed  High  Heaven,  or 
Azure  Heaven,  or  Supreme  Heaven,  has  been  and  is  to  multitudes  in 
China  a  great  court  of  final  appeal."  Even  Confucius  himself  ap- 
pealed to  it  when  wrongly  judged  by  his  fellowmen.  Poor  people  and 
helpless  widows  have  appealed  to  it  against  heartless  exactors. 
Chinese  patriots  have  appealed  to  it  when  marching  to  the  execution 
ground  where  their  blood  was  to  be  poured  out  by  tyrannical  rulers. 
The  number  of  these  appeals  from  a  lower  to  a  supreme  tribunal  it  is 
impossible  to  enumerate,  for  no  record  is  kept  among  men;  but  that 
does  not  say  there  is  no  record  of  them  in  heaven.  There  must  be  an 
enormous  list  on  the  docket  up  there, — the  accumulation  of  generations 
of  ages,  and  of  mankind.  But  the  court  has  plenty  of  time,  and  scales 
of  unswerving  justice,  and  the  unredressed  wrongs  of  earth  will  be 
rectified  there;  and  so  also  will  the  unHquidated  hopes  of  faith,  how- 
ever meagre,  be  fully  honored  there. 

And  all  this  because  God  is  God  and  not  man.  With  him  there  is 
no  difference;  he  will  render  to  very  man  according  to  his  deeds;  to 
every  sort  of  men,  to  the  Jew  and  also  to  the  Gentile,  to  the  Christian 
and  also  to  the  heathen;  more  than  that  he  will  deal  with  every  man 
according  to  the  light  he  has,  and  according  to  his  faith  in  that  light, 
— "According  to  thy  faith  be  it  unto  thee,"  to  the  Jew  first  and  also 
to  the  Gentile,  to  the  Christian  and  also  to  the  heathen,  for  there  is  no 
respect  of  persons  with  God.  Those  that  have  sinned  without  law 
shall  perish  without  law;  those  that  have  sinned  in  the  law  shall  be 
judged  by  the  law.  Blessed  are  they  who  have  seen  and  believed,  but 
blessed  also  are  they  that  have  not  seen  and  yet  have  believed.  Blessed 
are  thej^  who  have  had  the  full  gospel  of  the  four  evangelists  and  have 
believed;  but  blessed  also  are  they  who  have  only  the  gospel  types  and 
shadows,  and  have  had  only  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  to  trust  in, 
and  yet  have  believed.  Blessed  are  they  who  lived  before  the  days  of 
Moses  and  Aaron  and  had  only  the  gospel  of  Noah  to  inspire  them, 
and  yet  have  believed,  and  blessed  are  they  who  lived  before  the  flood 

45 


90  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

and  had  only  the  dim  adumbration  of  a  gospel  given  to  Adam  and 
Eve,  and  yet  have  believed.  God  will  honor  all  his  own  presages  and 
premonitions, — large  and  small,  without  fail,  according  as  they  are 
accepted  by  those  who  have  them.  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given ;  if 
they  believe  their  littles  they  will  get  the  benefit  of  much.  If  they  do 
not  use  the  little  when  they  have  it,  why  should  they  expect,  or  presume 
to  ask  for  more?  They  will  not  get  it.  There  will  be  taken  from 
them  even  that  they  seem  to  have.  Though  God  is  lavish  in  the  be- 
stowal of  grace,  he  never  squanders  grace,  and  Christ  bids  his  disciple 
follow  a  similar  rule,  and  cast  not  their  pearls  before  swine  who  will 
trample  them  underfoot.  The  promise  is  handed  down  from  age  to 
age  and  from  generation  to  generation,  enlarging  as  it  goes.  "It  is 
from  faith  to  faith."  "The  just  shall  live  by  faith,"  is  a  universal  law 
in  the  kingdom  of  grace ;  by  such  faith  as  they  have  the  means  of  form- 
ulating in  the  day  and  generation  in  which  they  Mve.  Paul  spoke  to 
the  Athenians  of  a  god  whom  some  of  them  had  ignorantly  wor- 
shipped, and  why  not,  presumably,  with  a  saving  sincerity?  It  is  evi- 
dent there  were  men  and  women  in  Athens  not  content  with  the  popular 
mythology,  and  who  concluded  there  must  be  something  better.  This 
was  an  inchoate  faith,  but  it  was  faith,  and  though  it  was  as  yet  with- 
out form  and  void,  an  Areopagite  and  certain  women  were  ready  to 
hsten  to  Paul  when  he  gave  a  name  to  the  unnamed,  and  definiteness 
to  the  unknown  God.  There  is  an  equation  of  faith ;  there  is  an  equa- 
tion of  law ;  there  is  an  equation  of  gospel,  a  provisional  and  a  tempo- 
rary gospel,  and  a  substantial  and  real  one  which  imparts  ejSicacy  to 
the  whole.  For  is  he  the  God  of  the  Christian  only  who  believes  up  to 
the  light  he  has?  Is  he  not  also  the  God  of  the  heathen  who  beheves 
also  up  to  the  light  he  has? 

THREE  BOOKS  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE  TAKEN  UP 
LARGELY  WITH  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  NATURE. 

These  three  books  are  Job,  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes ;  they  form 

46 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  91 

part  of  the  sacred  canon,  and  are  there  by  the  endorsement  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  They  form  also  a  part  of  the  literature  of  the  theology 
of  nature.  The  special  value  of  them  in  this  connection  is  that  they 
have  the  imprimatur  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  being  correct  representa- 
tions of  the  thought  of  their  times.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  endorses  all  that  is  said,  as  the  reasoning  of  Job's  three  friends, 
for  example,  was  repudiated  by  God  himself.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a 
correct  statement  of  the  way  they  reasoned,  and  of  the  progress  men 
had  made  in  ethical  discovery  from  the  hght  of  nature.  The  value  of 
these  books  is  not  yet  fully  assessed,  but  they  will  be  properly  rated 
some  day  when  the  final  summing  up  of  human  experience  is  con- 
summated. These  books  are  not  only  books  of  the  past ;  they  are  also 
books  of  the  future.  The  fixing  of  their  place  in  the  sum  total  of  re- 
hgious  and  moral  ascertainments  will  be  largely  a  work  of  the  genera- 
tions to  come. 

THE  BOOK  OF  JOB. 

In  the  book  of  Job  we  find  that  the  comprehensive  subject  of  dis- 
cussion was  the  divine  administration  of  human  affairs.  Under  it  the 
problems  of  good  and  evil,  of  God's  methods  in  general,  of  divine 
providence  in  particular,  and  of  his  treatment  of  specific  cases  all  come 
in  for  detailed  consideration.  The  scope  of  the  discussion  was  far- 
reaching,  involving  some  principles  that  would  reach  back  affecting 
angelic  conditions  in  pre-Adamic  ages,  and  reaching  forward  into 
coming  eternity.  The  striking  feature  of  the  whole  discussion  is  the 
fact  that  in  the  main  the  arguments  of  all  the  disputants  were  drawn 
from  the  light  of  nature.  This  shows  that  so  late  as  Job's  day,  eight 
hundred  years  after  the  flood,  there  was  a  clear  knowledge  of  Jehovah 
and  of  his  chief  attributes  still  existing.  There  are  some  faint  refer- 
ences to  direct  revelation,  but  they  did  not  quote  from  any  sacred 
books,  as  they  reasoned  from  premises  to  conclusions;  they  appealed 
to  the  natural  conscience,  to  the  lessons  of  history,  to  the  teachings  of 

47 


92  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

human  experience,  and  to  the  transmitted  light  of  earher  days.  "For 
inquire,  I  pray  thee,  of  the  former  age,  and  prepare  thyself  to  the 
search  of  their  fathers,"  all  of  which  is  an  appeal  to  the  light  of  nature. 
The  rehgious  and  moral  lesson  from  the  book  of  Job  and  which 
will  enter  into  a  final  estimate  of  human  responsibility  in  different 
ages  of  the  world  is  the  setting  forth,  both  of  the  sufficiency  and  of  the 
insufficiency  of  the  theology  of  nature.  It  will  sufficiently  guide  men 
in  the  right  way  if  they  wish  to  be  guided;  if  they  are  not  responsive, 
it  is  their  own  fault,  and  they  are  without  excuse.  It  is  insufficient  be- 
cause man's  eyes  are  made  for  a  more  exceeding  measure  of  light,  and 
needs  the  fullest  blaze  in  order  to  the  highest  development ;  and  further, 
because  man's  normal  perversity  is  so  great,  and  so  grows  upon  him 
age  by  age,  that  only  an  intense  concentration  of  light  and  heat  rays 
will  suffice  to  affect  him  at  the  last.  The  spiritual  demand  of  the  lat- 
ter ages  of  humanity  exceed  in  scope  and  f  uUness  the  demands  of  the 
earlier  age.  The  book  of  Job  is  a  justifier  of  the  ways  of  God  with 
the  men  in  primitive  generations. 

THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS. 

Here  is  a  book  of  extended  length  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  it  does  not  seem  to  have  any  special  adaptation  to  the  great  plan 
that  is  developed  in  Holy  Writ,  beginning  with  Genesis  and  ending 
with  Revelations.  Is  it  then  an  alien  in  the  inspired  procession?  Far 
from  it.  Those  proverbs  were  certainly  not  all  of  them  written  by  in- 
spired men,  but  the  collection  and  incorporation  of  them  in  the  Bible 
record  is  by  a  decree  of  inspiration.  Proverbs  are  condensed  summar- 
ies of  popular  wisdom,  of  common  experience,  and  of  general  accept- 
ances among  men.  It  is  this  feature  that  gives  them  their  value. 
Every  nation  and  every  tribe  has  its  proverbs, — even  savages  have 
them.  The  more  cultured  and  literary  peoples  have  them  by  the 
thousands.    The  Indian  peoples  have  them  in  multitudes ;  the  Chinese 

48 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  93 

have  them  in  number  quite  equal  to  those  of  Solomon,  many  of  them 
covering  the  same  ground  and  teaching  the  same  lessons  as  do  those 
of  Solomon.  These  proverbs  indicate  the  progress  of  the  ages 
through  milleniums  of  existence.  Their  applications  are  religious, 
moral,  social,  political,  industrial  and  economic.  Not  only  are  they 
descriptive  and  declarative  of  character  in  the  past,  but  they  are  also 
predictive  and  formative  of  character  in  the  future. 

A  study  of  these  proverbs  discloses  several  things  of  weight;  in- 
deed they  may  be  said  to  form  a  volume  of  practical  ethics  towards 
God  and  towards  man.  They  present  summaries  of  human  experi- 
ence and  practical  living ;  they  reveal  the  blessing  that  is  in  well-doing, 
and  the  curse  that  is  in  evil-doing;  they  exalt  trtithfulness  and  hon- 
esty and  industry  and  purity ;  they  are  witnesses  on  the  side  of  religion, 
of  morality,  and  of  industrial  thrift.  As  go  its  proverbs,  so  measur- 
ably heads  the  nation,  though  not  always  forcibly  and  successfully,  for 
it  is  always  falling  off  before  the  wind,  as  regards  both  rehgion  and 
morality. 

so  IT  IS  WITH  THE  PROVERBS  OF  SOLOMON. 

Three  thousand  of  these  proverbs  are  spoken  of ;  they  were  not  all 
composed  by  Solomon;  he  sought  them  out  and  set  them  in  order,  so 
they  are  not  all  Jewish  proverbs,  but  were  the  proverbs  of  all  the  na- 
tions round  about.  They  therefore  represent  the  moral  state  of  per- 
haps a  score  of  nations.  Of  course  as  might  be  expected  in  the  case  of 
Solomon,  they  are  pervaded  with  a  theistic  spirit  and  theistic  concep- 
tions throughout;  but  they  are  also  of  a  much  higher  grade  than  are 
the  proverbs  of  the  idol-worshipping  nations.  Wisdom  is  exalted  on 
a  lofty  pedestal,  and  is  manifestly  something  higher  than  ordinary 
human  wisdom.  Notably,  the  traits  of  virtue-loving  and  correctly- 
walking  members  of  the  community  are  commended,  whilst  the  traits 
of  the  vicious  and  the  scornful  are  held  up  to  universal  reprobation. 

Our  interest  in  the  proverbs  of  Solomon  in  this  connection  lies  in 

49 


94  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

their  religious  and  moral  bearing.  There  is  no  exphcit  mention  of 
Christ,  as  in  Isaiah  and  the  Prophets;  but  in  the  word  Wisdom  there 
is  a  manifest  reference  to  some  one  who  will  be  the  impersonification 
of  wisdom,  and  who  can  be  none  other  than  Christ.  But  the  absence 
of  such  explicit  reference  is  in  exact  accord  with  the  plan  and  the  pur- 
pose of  the  book,  which  is  to  be  a  text  book  in  the  possibilities  of 
natural  religion ;  as  such,  it  stands  out  unique.  Even  if  a  man  had  no 
other  book  than  these  Proverbs,  it  would  guide  him  in  his  treatment  of 
his  fellow  men.  Its  reference  to  a  Living  supreme,  mere  starlight  only 
though  it  might  be,  would  be  sufficient  as  a  light  in  a  dark  place  until 
the  daybreak  and  the  shadows  flee  away.  God  hath  not  left  himself 
without  witness. 

THE  BOOK  OF  ECCLESIASTES. 

A  singularly  unique  place  does  this  book  occupy  in  the  sacred 
canon.  It  is  certainly  a  book  of  the  remote  past,  and  yet  certainly  a 
book  of  the  remote  future,  for  it  is  a  prophecy  of  things  yet  to  come. 
The  writer  of  it  was  King  in  Jerusalem;  he  was  possessed  of  all  the 
appliances  of  wealth  and  luxury.  With  time  on  his  hand,  with  re- 
sources at  his  command,  with  great  mental  capacity  and  of  a  restless 
inquiring  spirit,  he  set  out  to  put  to  the  test  the  power  of  pleasure  and 
enjoyment  that  could  be  supposed  to  lie  in  all  these  things.  He  began 
his  round;  he  went  from  one  thing  to  another.  As  one  thing  proved 
to  be  a  disappointment,  he  dropped  it  and  tried  another  thing;  when 
that  also  failed  him,  he  took  up  with  something  new  again.  So  it 
went  on,  change  after  change,  round  after  round,  experience  after  ex- 
perience, until  he  had  completed  the  wearisome  list  of  possibilities. 
Everything  proved  futile,  until  at  last  he  had  to  sum  up  the  totalities 
of  his  experiences.  He  then  put  it  on  record,  and  put  it  as  the  final 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter :  in  order  for  any  one  to  make  a  success 
of  life,  he  must  fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments;  this  was  the 
whole  duty  of  man;  outside  of  that    any  and  all  human  endeavor  to 

50 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  95 

be  blessed  would  prove  to  be  a  bitter  disappointment.  "Vanity  and 
vexation  of  spirit;  vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity." 

Viewed  in  this  light,  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  instead  of  being  a 
pessimistic  wail  that  some  have  taken  it  to  be,  having  no  proper  place 
in  record  of  a  gospel  of  expectations,  is  one  of  the  most  impressive 
courses  of  Divine  pedagogy  that  we  have  in  all  the  whole  range  of  re- 
ligious literature. 

But  now  what  gives  its  transcendent  value  is  its  prefigurative 
and  predicitive  character.  It  takes  its  place  alongside  of 
all  those  figurative  institutes,  incidents  and  observances  which 
so  abound  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  which  a  smaller  round 
of  occurrences  is  made  an  analogue  of  a  larger  round  to 
come;  thus  we  all  accept  the  experience  of  a  natural  Israel  in 
its  journey  to  the  Land  of  Promise  as  an  analogue  of  spiritual  Israel 
on  the  w*ay  to  heaven.  Solomon's  individual  experiences  were  an 
epitome  of  race  experiences  as  a  whole ;  that  is,  Solomon's  experiences 
are  an  analogue  of  the  experience  of  humanity.  All  that  is  in  accord 
with  the  divine  method  of  teaching  in  which  a  microcosm  outlines  a 
megacosm, — a  thing  present,  a  thing  future, — a  thing  earthly,  a  thing 
heavenly.  When  humanity  has  reached  its  stent  of  history  in  the 
future,  then  will  moralists  re-write  and  re-read  the  character  of  its  suc- 
cessive generations,  and  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  will  be  found  to  be 
one  of  the  most  up-to-date  books  of  the  times.  As  Solomon  found  it, 
so  have  we  found  it;  as  God  said  he  would  do,  so  have  we  all  found 
that  he  has  done.  "The  Gentiles  shall  come  unto  thee  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  and  shall  say :  Surelj^  our  fathers  have  inherited  lies,  vanity 
and  things  wherein  there  is  no  profit."  The  lesson  of  all  human  ex- 
perience, and  all  nations  of  mankind  is  "fear  God  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments, for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man."  "For  God  shall  bring 
every  work  into  judgment,  with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good 
or  whether  it  be  evil." 


51 


96  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

II.     THE    STAGE    OF    HEATHEN 
CONSTRUCTIVENESS. 

Having  lost  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  and  being  still  im- 
pelled by  those  laws  planted  within  them  and  instinctive  belief  in  in- 
visible being,  future  existence  and  future  rewards  and  punishments, 
men  now  began  to  construct  religions  of  their  own,  and  to  devise  other 
gods  out  of  their  own  hearts. 

The  first  chapter  of  Romans  contains  an  inspired  account  of  the 
genesis  of  heathenism,  the  development  of  heathenism,  the  sentence  of 
heathenism,  and  the  judgment  on  heathenism.  In  face  of  that  chapter 
it  is  impossible  to  see  how  men  can  say,  as  do  some  professors  of  com- 
parative rehgion,  that  heathenism  is  a  stage  in  a  movement  towards 
God,  and  therefore  has  divine  endorsement.  This  makes  God  do  evil 
that  good  may  come.  Heathenism  has  never  been  a  movement  to- 
wards God,  but  a  movement  away  from  God. 

The  key  to  the  whole  defection  is  contained  in  the  words:  "They 
did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  loiowledge."  Having  created  a 
vacuum  in  their  own  minds  and  hearts,  they  must  now  fill  it  with  sub- 
stitutes. The  materials  they  had  for  their  various  constructions  of 
heathenism,  were,  as  already  intimated, —  ( 1 )  natural  belief  in  the  ex- 
istence of  gods  and  spirits  of  some  kind ;  ( 2 )  natural  belief  in  rewards 
and  punishments  in  a  future  state;  (3)  a  constraining  and  a  restrain- 
ing conscience ;  (4)  a  sense  of  dependence  on  superior  beings ;  (5)  re- 
mains of  early  traditions  and  revelations ;  (6)  environment;  (7)  man- 
ipulations,— to  these  must  be  added  Satanic  manipulations. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  different  systems  of  ancient  heathenism 
all  took  their  rise  about  the  same  time,  and  that  for  the  reason  that  they 
took  their  departure  from  God  about  the  same  time,  and  with  a  com- 
mon imjoulse  of  their  corrupt  natures.  Sabeism,  Hinduism,  Con- 
fucianism, the  worship  of  ancestors  and  of  deified  heroes,  are  all  of 
them  most  ancient  forms  of  religion.     It  is  to  be  further  noted  that 

52 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  97 

the  further  back  we  go  the  less  gross  and  sensual  we  find  to  be  the  re- 
ligious conceptions  of  men.  Indeed,  their  first  idolatries  did  not  imply 
direct  repudiation  of  Jehovah.  The  calf  that  Aaron  made  was 
more  of  an  advance  in  their  estimation  than  a  supercedure,  it 
^v^as  only  giving  to  Jehovah  a  visible  form:  "These  be  thy 
gods,  O  Israel,  which  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt."  Jehovah  was  made  to  assume  the  form  of  a  calf. 
The  same  thing  is  presumably  true  about  other  forms  of  primi- 
tive idolatry.  Sun  worship  was  at  first  monotheistic.  The  Egyptian's 
Sun  was  divided  up  into  the  morning  sun,  the  mid-day  sun,  and  the 
setting  sun.  To  the  men  of  that  day,  the  one  and  the  three  were  all 
representative  of  the  Living  God.  It  is  not  at  all  strange  that  to  the 
men  of  old  the  Sun  should  be  the  chief  emblem  of  deity.  The  life  of 
nature  apparently  proceeded  from  it.  But  God  utterly  repudiated, 
and  condemned  to  destruction  all  such  attempts  to  materialize  himself, 
— ^a  spiritual  being.  Such  worship  is  not  accepted  as  a  worship  of  Je- 
hovah. The  conception  of  Jehovah  is  lost  in  the  transmission,  and  the 
things  they  sacrifice  they  sacrifice  to  devils. 

We  must  not  fail  to  note  the  steps  in  this  down  grade ;  the  order 
is  indicated  by  the  apostle, — "Because  that  when  they  knew  God  they 
glorified  him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful,  but  became  vain  in 
their  imagination,  and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened.  Professing 
themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools,  and  changed  the  glory  of  the 
incorruptible  God  into  an  image  made  like  too  corruptible  man,  and  to 
birds,  and  to  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things."  It  is  a  tre- 
mendous stride  from  lofty  sun-worship  down  to  the  worship  of  slimy 
snakes;  yet  that  is  the  course  that  heathenism  has  run.  It  certainly 
was  not  God  who  led  them  along  that  tortuous  road  leading  to  the 
mouth  of  the  pit.  Teachers  of  comparative  religion,  who  want  to  es- 
tablish a  divine  element  in  heathenism,  may  dislike  to  admit  that  Satan 
was  in  it.    We  positively  affirm  that  it  was  not  God  who  was  in  it. 

To  these  statements  the  facts  of  human  history  all   correspond. 

53 


98  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

The  first  stage  was  the  dignified  and  refined  worship  of  the  host  of 
heaven  which  occupied  the  human  mind  for  some  hundreds  of  years. 
The  second  stage  followed  when  prominence  was  given  to  men  of  re- 
nown, to  heroes,  and  to  dead  ancestors.  The  Greek  and  Roman  pan- 
theon with  its  Jupiters,  its  Saturns,  its  Mercuries  and  its  Venuses  who 
lived  like  mortals,  reveled  like  mortals,  intrigued  like  mortals,  and 
fought  and  scratched  and  bit  each  other  like  mortals,  mark  the  second 
part  of  the  downward  grade.  In  close  succession  followed  the  reptile 
and  the  groveling  stage,  when  animals  were  adored,  when  monkeys 
were  worshiped,  and  snakes  were  honored  as  gods.  Then  Satan's 
work  of  bestializing  and  devilizing  mankind  was  complete. 

And  still  there  is  another  combination, — a  combination  which 
calls  to  mind  the  unnatural  blending  of  a  man  and  a  fish,  as  was  Dagon 
of  the  Philistines  in  order  to  make  an  object  of  worship.  It  is  charac- 
teristic of  such  systems  that  they  do  not  seek  the  dim  shadow  of  heathen 
darkness  for  their  development;  they  spring  up  in  the  blaze  of  Chris- 
tian sunUght.  Among  them  we  must  include  Mormonism,  Eddyism, 
Spiritism,  and  certain  minor  systems  which  are  not  yet  fully  de- 
veloped, but  which  seem  to  be  on  the  way.  In  all  these,  some  arrogant 
and  usurping  human  leadership  guides  the  movement,  while  the  Bible 
is  appealed  to  to  furnish  phraseology  and  form  of  concept  for  what  is 
only  a  new  form  of  idolatry.  All  claim  that  they  are  in  harmony  with 
the  Bible.  What  they  want  to  contend  for  is  that  the  Bible  is  in 
harmony  with  them;  but  they  override  the  Bible  and  explain  away  its 
teachings  when  it  conflicts  with  the  teachings  of  their  books.  These 
systems  are  classified  as  semi-heathen,  for  such  they  are.  They  have 
little  in  common  with  the  system  of  the  Bible,  save  its  stolen 
phraseology. 

It  is  characteristic  of  organized  heathenism  that  it  tries  to  meet 
some  of  the  essential  needs  of  the  human  soul,  or  to  say,  what  is  prob- 
ably nearer  the  truth,  that  imperative  longings  of  the  human  soul  have 
embodied  themselves  in  formulas  which   afterward   are   incorporated 

54 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  99 

into  their  several  systems,  though  they  may  have  been  added  to  or 
modified  by  subsequent  teachers  among  themselves.  Heathenism  is  not 
always  the  product  of  these  leaders  of  thought;  it  is  often  an  expres- 
sion of  the  sentiment  of  their  people,  and  is  a  slow  growth  during  suc- 
cessive generations.  Mythological  and  speculative  monstrosities  are 
added  by  their  adventurous  thinkers  as  might  be  expected.  There  are 
things  in  heathenism  intended  to  satisfy  the  conscience,  other  things 
intended  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  a  solution  for  the  profound  myster- 
ies of  being;  and  other  things  again  intended  to  explain  the  condition 
of  things  in  the  world  around.  These  systems  serve  a  purpose  after 
their  sort;  they  do  not  satisfy,  but  they  do  pre-occupy,  and  do 
hinder  the  entrance  of  genuine  light,  and  they  do  administer  so- 
porifics which  make  it  difficult  to  arouse  the  soul  out  of  its  stupor.  A 
study  of  these  heathen  systems  is  a  needful  concomitant  of  missionary 
service;  but  it  is  too  vast  a  subject  to  be  entered  into  here,  and  with 
this  remark  it  must  be  relegated  to  an  appendix.  Such  books  as  Hard- 
wick's,  "Christ  and  Other  Masters,"  Monier  WilHams'  book  on 
Hinduism,  Rhys  David  and  Spence  Hardy  on  Buddahism,  Dr. 
Legge  on  Confucianism,  will  furnish  sufficiently  adequate  survey 
of  the  whole  field  to  start  with. 

IS  ANY  PART  OF  HEATHENISM  OF  DIVINE  ORIGIN? 

Right  here  comes  in  an  issue  which  requires  immediate  consider- 
ation. It  is  a  favorite  thesis  to  some  students  of  Comparative  Religion 
that  heathenism,  partially  at  least,  is  of  divine  origin  as  already  stated. 
These  students  ask  the  question:  "Is  there  not  some  good  in  heathen 
precepts,  and  if  so,  did  not  that  part  of  it  come  from  God?"  "The 
Devil  does  not  incorporate  good  in  a  system," — so  they  say.  But 
now  that  depends ;  of  his  own  accord  and  for  his  own  sake,  Satan  does 
not  incorporate  good,  but  if  the  admixture  of  some  truth  will  enable 
him  to  give  effect  to  a  deal  of  deadly  falsehood,  we  expect  him  to  do 
it.  We  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices.     The  good  that  is  in  heathen 

55 


100  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

teaching  came  from  the  lingering  light  of  revelation,  or  from  a  sur- 
viving tradition  of  better  days,  and  notably  from  the  law  written  on 
the  table  of  the  heart.  We  know  where  thej^  got  their  ideas  of  sacri- 
fice for  sin;  they  came  from  the  days  of  Noah  before  there  was  any 
heathen  system  of  any  kind.  The  ten  commandments  of  Buddhism 
came  from  moral  law  written  on  the  heart  before  there  was  any  Bud- 
dhism, and  so  with  all  of  their  clear  discernments  of  the  rights  of  man 
found  in  the  code  of  Hammurabi,  the  laws  of  Manu,  the  Analects  of 
Confucius  and  still  other  heathen  summaries  of  right  and  wrong  be- 
tween man  and  man.  It  is  not  necessary  to  come  down  to  the  days  of 
Moses ;  they  were  older  than  Moses ;  they  were  older  than  Hammurabi ; 
they  were  as  old  as  the  human  heart  on  which  they  were  written  by  the 
same  divine  finger  that  afterwards  wrote  them  on  the  tables  of  stone. 
We  do  not  think  the  spade  has  yet  completed  its  work  of  digging  up 
buried  evidence.  IMen  are  now  claiming  that  the  use  of  an  ark  as  a 
rehgous  emblem  is  older  than  Moses,  and  that  he  was  only  a  copyist. 
He  was  no  copyist.  We  are  told  in  Exodus  where  he  got  his  whole 
series  of  designs;  they  came  from  God  in  the  first  place.  Though  as 
yet  we  have  not  the  evidence  that  it  was  so,  yet  if  it  should  turn  out 
that  an  ark  and  its  attended  paraphernalia  were  used  before  Moses, 
we  shall  then  be  on  the  lookout  for  further  evidence  of  what  there  was 
in  the  rehgious  thought  of  that  early  time ;  there  may  have  been  an  en- 
deavor to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  ark  as  a  means  of  salvation, 
just  as  afterward  men  wanted  to  perpetuate  the  brazen  serpent  for 
the  same  purpose.  The  Christian  archaeologist  has  nothing  to  fear 
and  everything  to  hope  for  from  the  diligent  use  of  the  spade.  God 
has  a  deal  of  evidence  yet  hid  away  like  the  memorial  of  the  prophet  to 
be  "found  after  many  days." 

One  of  the  new  speculations  of  this  generation  is  that  God  has 
assigned  to  each  one  of  a  dozen  nations  some  special  moral  problem 
to  work  out,  and  then  all  their  results  are  twisted  into  a  common  cable 
to  be  used  as  a  tow-line  for  Christianity.    Mohammedanism,  they  say, 

56 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  101 

furnishes  a  strand;  Hindusim,  a  strand;  Buddhism  a  strand;  Con- 
fucianism a  strand;  and  Judaism  a  strand,  and  so  on  all  the  way- 
through.  This  conjecture  is  fanciful  in  the  extreme;  we  know  of  not 
a  word  of  Scripture  to  support  it,  nor  is  there  anything  in  actual 
human  experience  to  justify  it.  Instead  of  being  helps  to  Chris- 
tianity, these  heathen  religions  are  hindrances.  In  India  when  the 
question  is  put:  "What  is  the  greatest  hindrance  to  the  entrance  of 
Christianity?" — the  answer  is,  "Hinduism";  in  Ceylon  it  is  Buddhism; 
in  China  is  is  Confucianism,  and  in  Turkey  it  is  Mohammedanism. 
To  say  that  God,  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  Christianity  of  his 
Christ,  preoccupied  the  ground  with  a  false  religion,  which  is  found 
to  be  the  greatest  hindrance  to  his  purpose,  is  to  attribute  to  him  a 
want  of  business  capacity  that  would  discredit  an  apprentice.  As 
against  all  this,  we  deny  that  Christianity  has  borrowed  any  material, 
or  any  suggestions  whatever  from  heathenism.  Heathenism,  on  the 
contrary,  has  borrowed  from  Jehovah  worship.  Christianity  has  a 
full  and  a  divinely  given  outfit  of  its  own,  clothed  in  symbols  and 
words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth.  Its  doctrines  are  its  own;  its 
usages  are  its  own;  its  methods  are  its  own;  and  its  power  is  its  own. 
A  seeming  exception  to  this  is  the  "nomenclature  of  religion,"  but  the 
exception  is  seeming  only.  That  part  of  the  religious  phraseology 
which  is  really  serviceable  to  us  is  that  originating  from  the  inner 
laws  of  rehgion  and  morality  written  in  the  heart ;  so  heathenism  is  not 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  any  of  it.  Even  such  nomenclature  as  they 
have  is  like  a  flagon  made  to  hold  wine,  but  which  has  been  used  for 
bailing  out  tar;  it  is  hard  to  get  the  taste  of  the  tar  scoured  out.  Be- 
sides, the  working  terminology  of  to-day  which  is  doing  effective  work, 
is  one  which  missionaries  have  gradually  elaborated  for  themselves. 

In  old  times  certain  leaders  of  human  thought  proposed  to  have 
an  image  of  Christ  set  up  in  the  pantheon.  In  our  days  the  proposed 
enlargement  is  in  the  other  direction;  it  is  proposed  to  instal  heathen- 
ism among  the  builders  of  God's  revelation.    A  precedent  for  this  has 

57 


102  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

come  down  to  us  from  the  days  of  Nehemiah.  Eliashim  prepared  a 
lodging  place  for  Tobiah  in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  God.  Nehemiah 
says  about  it:  "And  it  grieved  me  sore,  therefore  I  cast  forth  all  the 
household  of  Tobiah  out  of  the  chambers,  then  I  commanded  and  they 
cleansed  the  chambers,  and  thither  brought  I  again  the  vessels  of  the 
house  of  the  Lord  with  the  meat  offering  and  the  frankincense."  If 
rejection  and  fumigation  took  place  once,  it  may  have  to  take  place 
again, — "The  thing  that  hath  been  is  the  thing  that  shall  be," — says 
Solomon. 


III.     THE    STAGE    OF    PHILOSOPHICAL    SPECULA- 
TION AND  INQUIRY. 

The  constructions  of  the  heathen  mind  with  all  their  foolish  cos- 
mogonies did  not  satisfy  the  more  thinking  ones  among  them ;  so  they 
began  to  seek  a  better  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  existence, 
and  thousands  of  years  before  Heeckel  was  born,  they  were  agitating 
the  subject  and  laboring  at  the  riddle  of  the  universe.  Philosophy 
came  in  to  supercede  the  blundering  of  priestcraft,  which  had  held  the 
human  mind  in  thraldom  for  its  hundreds  of  years  already,  but  which 
had  reached  no  result.  The  word  Philosophy  is  our  modern  term  for 
what  in  the  ancient  term  was  known  as  Wisdom.  A  philosopher  is  a 
man  who  claims  to  love  wisdom  for  its  own  sake ;  pure,  unadulterated 
wisdom,  no  matter  where  it  is  to  be  found,  and  no  matter  whither  it 
may  lead, — what  they  say  they  want  is  Truth,  plain,  simple,  substantial, 
universal,  eternal  and  divine  Truth ;  and  surely  there  could  be  nothing 
nobler  under  the  sun  for  the  men  of  intellect  and  candor  than  the  dis- 
sipation of  error  and  the  ascertainment  of  truth.  The  fullness  of  the 
field,  of  philosophical  inquiry,  subsequently  open  to  men,  was  not  per- 
ceived at  the  outset.  Its  dimensions  widened  as  progress  was  made, 
and  this  has  been  and  ever  will  continue  to  be  a  perplexity  to  the  philo- 
sophic thinker.    While  his  scope  of  vision  has  widened  immensely,  he 

58 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  103 

thinks  he  can  see  pretty  near  to  the  end  already;  but  his  horizon  re- 
cedes, and  continues  to  recede,  and  keeps  on  receding  forever,  and  that 
is  the  trouble.  He  is  not  alone  in  this.  The  man  of  Science,  who  is 
sounding  the  depths  in  his  department,  finds  his  plummet  too  short 
and  has  no  means  of  lengthening  it.  His  apparatus  for  investigation 
is  scanty,  and  far  more  scanty  than  it  need  be  if  he  would  be  willing 
to  believe  only  some  few  of  those  things  which  have  been  told  to  him 
which  came  from  God.  He  relies  wholly  on  his  own  power  of  ratiocin- 
tion ;  he  knows  how  to  work  by  means  of  the  sylogism,  how  to  compare, 
how  to  deduce,  how  to  reason,  and  how  to  reach  conclusions;  but  he 
lacks  data.  He  can  pry  if  he  can  only  get  a  fulcrum.  Hypothesis 
and  speculation  and  tentative  thought  are  largely  his  methods  of  ap- 
proach to  his  theme;  but  this  constitutes  the  most  difficult  method  of 
human  research,  for  in  a  reasoning  process  there  are  primary  premises 
and  primary  conclusions,  and  then  there  are  secondary  premises  and 
secondary  conclusions,  and  there  are  tertiary  premises  and  tertiary 
conclusions,  and  so  on,  we  might  say,  forever.  But  the  difficulty  of 
drawing  correct  conclusions  increases  enormously  as  we  advance  to 
the  third  and  fourth  and  fifth  and  sixth  alignments  of  thought.  The 
possibilities  of  mistakes  and  the  certainty  of  sophistries  and  fallacies, 
and  non-sequiters,  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  Yet  here  the  philoso- 
pher is  formulating  a  theory,  working  at  it  for  a  little  while,  then  giv- 
ing it  up,  to  go  through  the  same  process  with  a  new  theory,  and  then 
suddenly  finding  out  that  his  whole  apparatus  needs  readjusting. 
There  is  something  captivating  to  a  human  intellect  in  a  man's  throw- 
ing himself  bravely  into  deep  water,  trusting  to  his  native  powers,  and 
his  ability  to  dive  to  the  bottom  and  bring  up  some  pearl  of  great  price. 
The  line  of  philosophers  from  the  old  Aryans,  and  from  Thales  the 
Greek,  down  to  the  German  and  Anglo-Saxons  of  modern  time,  con- 
tain a  succession  of  the  strongest,  brightest  and  most  acute  intellects 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  That  such  an  array  of  heavy-weight  thinkers 
has  been  alloted  to  them  by  a  Providence  careful  in  the  utihzation  of  its 

59 


104  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

resources  need  not  excite  surprise.  If  it  were  possible  for  philosophy 
to  solve  the  great  problems  before  it,  and  to  know  God  by  its  own  in- 
herent sagacity,  then  what  need  of  another  revealer  coming  down  from 
heaven.  If  philosophy  did  not  have  the  very  best  opportunity,  and  the 
very  best  expounders  that  humanity  affords,  then  it  might  be  alleged 
that  it  had  not  yet  had  a  chance  to  do  its  best.  Therefore  God  has 
assigned  them  this  great  cavalcade  of  scholars  to  carry  on  their  search 
for  them.  If  such  men  cannot  achieve  success,  then  nobody  can,  for 
there  is  no  indication  that  the  acuteness  of  the  world's  intellect  wiU 
ever  surpass  them.  The  verdict  therefore  remains  for  the  "word  which 
was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us."  The  world  by  wisdom  knew 
not  God.  The  philosopher  by  searching  could  not  find  out  God,  at 
least  he  did  not. 

AVHY    PRIMITIVE    PHILOSOPHY    FAILED. 

The  reason  for  this  failure  lay  largely  in  his  defective  method 
and  in  his  unreliable  verifying  test.  The  old  Aryan  philosopher 
started  out  with  his  confused  tradition  of  a  Supreme  Being.  He  said 
this  being  dwelt  alone  in  solitude,  supreme  and  unapproachable.  "The 
Great  Sohtary  One."  He  was  discontented  because  he  had  no  progeny 
and  resolved  to  transmute  himself  into  creation,  into  a  universe  full  of 
life  and  activity,  that  should  contrast  with  the  previous  eternal  qui- 
etude. Hence  came  the  sun,  the  moon  and  the  stars,  flowers  and  ani- 
mals, fishes  and  insects,  and  all  these  are  parts  of  God,  and  are  God. 
He  himself  is  the  ineffable,  the  incomprehensible,  sole-hypostasis  of 
all  that  is,  the  absolute  monistic  substance  of  all  being,  the  protoplasm 
of  the  universe.  He  is  the  undeveloped  universe,  while  the  universe, 
including  all  the  imps  and  devils,  is  simply  developed  and  organized 
deity. 

This  view  soon  failed  to  satisfy  the  demand  of  the  more  thought- 
ful intellects,  even  at  that  early  day.  Then  followed  the  Sankya  phil- 
osophy, the  progenitor  of  all  the  schools  of  pure  reason.    It   took   a 

60 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  105 

more  practical  turn  by  seeking  for  a  panacea  for  all  ills  by  resolving 
all  intellectual  difficulties,  and  by  revealing  the  real  nature  of  all  that 
is.  Kapila  might  have  been  able  to  satisfy  his  own  mind,  though  that 
is  doubtful,  but  he  could  not  answer  anxious  questions  put  to  him  about 
the  Supreme  Intelligence.  When  asked  by  whom  the  human  soul 
had  been  made  to  emanate,  or  why  the  great  primordial  eternal  was 
individualized  in  human  bodies,  he  could  only  say  it  had  always  been 
so,  and  was  a  step  in  an  inscrutable  and  eternal  process. 

A  new  school  of  Sankya  followed  and  a  foundation  was  laid  for 
the  philosophic  religion  of  Buddha.  But  whatever  the  variation,  the 
same  speculative  conjecture  pervades  them  all.  They  reached  no- 
where and  they  settled  nothing. 

THE  TORCH  OF  PHILOSOPHY  IN  TRANSITION. 

It  was  then  that  the  torch  of  philosophical  inquiry  passed  over  to 
the  Greeks,  as  already  pointed  out.  Whence,  Why,  How  and 
Whither?  The  Physicists  led  off  and  the  JSIathematicians  followed. 
What  is  the  beginning  of  all  things?  "It  is  moisture,"  said  Thales.  "It 
is  air,"  said  Anaximenes,  and  the  rattle  of  clubs  and  the  battering  of 
shields  began,  and  has  since  continued  without  a  let-up.  For  twenty- 
four  hundred  years  has  the  tournament  gone  on.  The  Indians  died 
and  gave  place  to  the  Greeks;  the  Greeks  died  and  gave  place  to  the 
Germans;  but  they  have  formulated  no  conclusion  yet.  Hypothesis 
has  been  pitted  against  hypothesis,  but  the  all-embracing  unity  has 
not  been  found.  The  brain  energy  expended  has  been  enormous ;  the 
intellectual  achievements  are  a  monument  of  wonder.  The  mass  of 
teachings  fill  volumes;  the  broken  derricks  are  heaped  lip  like  cord- 
wood;  the  burnt-out  beUows  htter  the  ground. 

And  now  England  and  America  are  having  their  turn ;  but  neither 
have  their  men  of  philosophy  reached  a  terminus.  Herbert  Spencer, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  modern  philosophers,  has  elaborated  his  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy.    With  him  as  with  others,  the  kinship  of  all  knowl- 

6i 


106  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

edge  is  indisputable.  He  sees  that  all  the  lines  converge,  as  the  spokes 
of  the  wheel  converge  to  a  common  centre,  and  he  has  been  trying  to 
find  the  hub,  but  he  has  not  found  it.  He  had  got  to  the  point  where 
he  said  that  all  the  entities  and  phenomena  of  existence  could  be  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  Matter,  Force,  Emotion.  Behind  that  he  said  he 
could  not  go.  The  truth  is  that  back  of  that  he  did  not  want  to  go; 
for  if  he  had  taken  another  step  he  would  have  stood  face  to  face  with 
the  fact  of  a  living  and  personal  God. 

THE    SHORTAGES    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

The  current  philosophy  of  the  day  has  made  a  little  progress  in 
some  quarters  towards  something  ultimate  and  final.  Philosophy  in 
our  day  is  driven  to  postulate  a  supreme  potential  energy  of  some 
kind ;  but  in  the  main  it  is  still  in  a  bog  of  indefiniteness  and  uncer- 
tainty. It  talks  of  evolution,  and  it  talks  of  monism ;  it  talks  of  physi- 
ology ;  it  talks  of  physchology ;  it  has  a  nomenclature  of  new  and  per- 
plexing terms,  which  have  to  be  revamped  every  little  while.  But  the 
vast  enigma  remains  unexplained.  Whence  came  the  universe? 
What  is  the  purpose  of  the  universe?  What  is  to  be  the  final  destiny 
of  the  universe?  and  whence  came  moral  evil?  and  how  are  we  to  get 
rid  of  it?  What  is  behind  Force?  What  is  back  of  Motion?  What 
is  the  substratum  of  ^Matter?  Shall  we  be  told  the  unknown  and  the 
unknowable?  Then  what  have  we  gained  since  the  days  of  the 
Aryans.  They  told  us  of  perpetual  ebb  and  flow.  They  set  forth  a 
rounded  system  of  monism.  They  told  us  of  evolution.  They  dis- 
coursed about  an  inexplicable  energy.  Israel  of  old  started  out  from 
Kadesh  Barnea,  and  after  forty  years'  wandering  brought  up  at 
Kadesh  Barnea  again.  And  like  unto  them  the  weary  and  footsore 
columns  of  philosophy  will  bring  up  where  its  leaders  started  thousands 
of  years  ago,  that  is,  one  portion  of  them  will.  The  other  portion  will 
not,  and  that  is  the  portion  that  disdains  to  accept  a  clew  from  the  Al- 
mighty. 

62 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  IO7 

IS  SOUND  PHILOSOPHY  INIMICAL  TO  GOD  AND  TRUTH? 

And  is  philosophy  then  inimical  to  the  truth  of  God?  By  no 
means.  Philosophers  themselves,  some  of  them  are  inimical;  but  it  is 
not  philosophy  that  made  them  so ;  it  is  because  their  own  hearts  have 
been  averse  to  disclosures  concerning  a  holy  God.  It  is  hohness  they 
dislike,  and  it  is  the  distaste  for  the  holy  that  warps  their  judgment 
and  that  limits  their  ascertainment.  The  objects  of  study  to  which 
philosophers,  have  devoted  themselves  are  all  of  them  parts  of  God's 
creation.  One  line  of  God's  truth  is  never  at  war  with  another  line  of 
his  truth.  Therefore  philosophy  if  rightly  studied  will  lead  towards 
God.  It  will  not  discover  all  the  truth  about  God  that  needs  to  be 
known,  but  it  will  discover  a  vast  deal  more  than  undevout  philoso- 
phers have  ever  deemed  possible.  The  true  measure  of  sound  philo- 
sophical ascertainment,  and  the  uplifting  impulse  heavenward  and 
Godward  belong  to  the  students  of  the  future.  When  skeptically 
predisposed  philosophers  have  done  their  utmost,  and  have  exposed 
their  inability,  another  class  will  arise  to  work  over  their  materials,  and 
fit  them  for  a  place  in  the  temple  of  eternal  truth.  The  philosophy 
builders  of  the  past  have  wrought  for  a  structure  in  which  God  was 
not.  They  handle  many  of  his  truths,  but  himself,  the  author  of  them, 
they  ignore.  The  philosophy  builders  of  the  future  will  have  God  in 
all  their  thoughts.  They  will  accept  God  as  the  starting  point.  The 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  They  will  recognize  God 
in  all  their  progress,  and  they  will  point  their  disciples  to  God  as  the 
end  and  consummation  of  all  wisdom.  Philosophy  will  then  go  hand 
in  hand  with  theology  and  become  its  obedient  handmaid,  while  the- 
ology in  return  will  make  the  castofF  slag  of  their  furnaces  even  irri- 
descent  with  glory. 

IV.     THE    STAGE    OF    SCIENTIFIC    INVESTIGATION 
AND    ASCERTAINMENT. 

This  is  a  modren  phase.    We  have  but  recently  entered  upon  it, 

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108  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

and  have  as  yet  only  begun  to  enumerate  its  discoveries  and  to  draw 
conclusions.  The  years  of  the  immediate  future  are  to  be  full  of  the 
wonders  of  science.  Its  contributions  to  the  sum  total  of  human 
knowledge,  and  notably  to  theology,  as  will  be  found,  is  inestimable, 
philosophy  discredited  and  superseded  the  pretensions  of  priestcraft 
in  human  thought,  so  in  turn  it  is  coming  to  pass  that  science  begins 
to  dispute  the  claims  of  philosophy  to  leadership.  So  many  were  the 
uncertainties  of  speculative  thought,  and  so  conflicting  were  the  con- 
clusions reached  after  hundi-eds  of  years  of  trial,  that  a  new  school  of 
thinkers  came  to  the  fore.  They  declared  philosophic  theorizing  to  be 
wholly  unreliable.  They  started  a  school  for  the  study  of  facts,  and 
to  induction  from  established  facts  only.  The  result  was  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Inductive  Philosophy,  culminating  in  Inductive  Science, 
And  so  Science  forged  ahead  to  the  front,  and  there  it  is  to-day  leading 
the  vanguard  of  thought  in  many  intellectual  circles. 

Science  applies  itself  to  the  study  of  phenomena  and  the  laws  of 
nature.  It  professes  to  exclude  all  theorizing  from  its  apparatus,  and 
it  excludes  also  the  credenda  of  the  faith.  What  can  be  established 
by  incontrovertible  facts  it  accepts.  What  cannot  be  so  established  it 
regards  with  disfavor.  As  a  consequence  of  its  method  its  field  of 
observation  is  self -circumscribed.  The  man  who  says  he  will  accept 
nothing  but  what  he  has  verified  for  himself  is  at  once  shut  up  to  nar- 
row confines.  How  much  of  all  the  arcana  of  knowledge  which  he 
professes  to  believe,  and  which  he  really  does  believe  has  he  ever 
demonstrated  or  worked  out  for  himself?  Has  he  calculated  for  him- 
self the  distance  of  the  sun — the  size  of  the  earth — the  composition  of 
water — of  air — and  of  a  hundred  other  things  ?  Not  at  all.  He  takes 
them  all  on  trust  from  somebody  who  has  worked  them  out,  or  who 
does  know.  That  is  why  the  Christian  believes  what  he  does  about  the 
creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  He  takes  the  word  of  the  person 
who  was  there,  who  made  them,  and  who  does  know. 

In  the  pursuance  of  their  inductive  method  scientists  come  to  be- 

64 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  109 

lieve  that  law  is  supreme.  The  tendency  with  them  is  to  do  away  with 
any  law-giver,  and  any  superintending  and  administrative  providence, 
and  to  confine  themselves  to  the  possibilities  of  their  own  scales  and 
retorts,  and  crucibles,  and  measuring  sticks.  In  the  use  of  them  great 
progress  has  been  made,  and  much  more  will  be  made.  But  as  already 
said,  the  same  difficulties  meet  the  scientists  that  has  already  met  the 
philosopher.  The  field  widens  as  he  advances,  and  it  widens  into  an 
interminable  vista.  He  thought  he  was  getting  well  along  in  his  ex- 
plorations, and  was  approaching  some  finality;  but  the  finahty  is  far- 
ther off  than  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago.  There  is  an  infinity  of  vast- 
ness  in  one  direction,  and  an  infinity  of  littleness  in  another.  And  so 
the  end  is  not  reached  in  either  direction.  The  power  of  the  telescope 
gives  out,  and  the  power  of  the  microscope  gives  out.  There  is  a  mini- 
mum of  lens  capacity  and  a  maximum  of  lens  in  capacity.  This  maxi- 
mum seems  to  be  within  reach  already,  when  lo !  new  stellar  systems  are 
discernible  in  space,  which  cannot  be  resolved.  And  so  in  the  way  of 
minute  analysis,  the  complexity  increases,  while  the  capability  of  the 
instrument  decreases.  Substances  and  elements  that  were  supposed  to 
be  simple  are  found  to  be  complex.  Gases  that  are  supposed  to  be 
primary  are  found  to  be  combinations.  More  than  once  has  a  jubilant 
"Eureka!"  gone  up  from  the  laboratory  as  if  the  primordial  constitu- 
ents of  nature  has  at  last  been  discovered.  But  after  a  little  while  a 
vague  suspicion  flashes  in  that  further  analysis  is  required,  and  yet  the 
implements  are  not  to  be  had.  How  far  yet  is  it  to  infinity  back,  and 
infinity  ahead;  or  from  infinity  above  to  infinity  below?  Where  is  the 
scientist  that  can  speak  with  confidence  ?  In  one  direction  are  yet  sixty 
unresolved  elements  that  at  present  defy  the  finest  instruments,  and  in 
the  disc  area  of  our  mightiest  telescopes  are  tiny  specks  that  refuse  to 
be  measured.  What  are  they,  and  what  is  beyond  them  again? 
Science  has  pushed  back  the  known,  that  is  all;  she  has  exhausted  her- 
self, but  has  not  yet  exhausted  her  problems,  and  never  will. 

Human  language  cannot  exceed  the  eulogy  due  to  science  for  the 

65 


110  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

benefits  it  has  conferred  upon  humanity  by  its  discoveries.  But  when 
it  comes  to  answering  the  questions  of  ambitious  and  soaring  intellects 
it  is  pitiably  irresponsive,  and  when  it  comes  to  the  still  deeper  ques- 
tions that  concern  the  welfare  of  every  human  being,  why  am  I  a  sin- 
ner, and  how  shall  I  ever  break  the  shackles  that  bind  me? — ^it  is  sor- 
rowfully dumb.  What  is  science  worth  and  what  is  philosophy  worth, 
with  all  their  blazing  torches  of  learning,  if  when  I  come  to  step  down 
into  the  dark  valley  they  cannot  furnish  me  a  taper  to  hght  up  the 
gloom.  Of  what  use  to  me,  then,  is  all  the  learned  nonsense  about  the 
fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms  ?  Or  the  incessant  round  of  change  from 
the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous,  and  back  again?  Is  that  the 
best  they  can  do  in  the  way  of  a  definition?  If  so,  then  a  scientist  who 
talks  that  way  is  found  to  be  a  man  who  professes  to  have  explored 
the  depths  of  science,  and  then  sums  up  the  work  of  his  life  in  the  utter- 
ance of  a  platitude.  "A  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms" — what  does 
that  amount  to?  A  round  of  "change  from  the  homogenous  to  the  het- 
erogenous and  back  again" ;  and  how  much  does  he  know  now?  Verily 
the  unsolved  riddle  of  the  universe  is  as  much  a  riddle  as  ever.  The 
man  has  got  back  to  the  old  speculation  of  the  ancients.  It  is  an  ap- 
plication to  natural  things  of  the  old  doctrine  of  metemphyschosis 
among  animated  existences. 

THE  SHORTAGES  OF  SCIENCE. 

As  regards  the  fundamental  question  raised  in  the  theology  of 
nature,  the  religions  and  the  moral  law  of  nature,  and  the  gospel  of 
nature,  science  at  present  is  a  blank.  All  the  law  that  it  knows  any- 
thing about  is  physical  law,  or  natural  law  in  the  natural  world,  the 
law  of  weights  and  measures,  the  law  of  knives  and  scalpels,  the  law  of 
cause  and  effect  in  the  realm  of  matter,  unless  it  be  that  mind  is  mat- 
ter, a  question  not  yet  settled  among  them.  As  for  any  gospel  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  that  word,  there  is  none.  There  is  "promise  and 
potencj^"  for  this  life.    There  is  length  of  days,  and  scope  of  enjoy- 

66 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  HI 

ment  ahead  when  science  has  mastered  the  forces  at  work.  But  gospel 
in  relation  to  the  world  to  come  forms  no  part  of  its  elaboration.  Ex- 
planation of  the  fact  of  sin  there  is  none.  Hope  of  delivery  from  sin 
there  is  none.  Yet  in  a  full  rounded  scheme  of  knowledge,  how  can 
these  things  be  left  out  ?  It  is  unscientific  to  leave  them  out ;  it  is  hor- 
ribly cruel  to  leave  them  out.  The  scientist  says  that  the  things  of 
morality,  and  the  things  of  a  future  world  do  not  lie  in  the  sphere  of 
his  researches.  But  why  do  they  not  ?  Do  they  not  concern  humanity 
as  much  as  in  the  discovery  of  a  new  form  of  breakfast  food,  or  the 
composition  of  a  new  pill  for  stomach-ache?  But  science  prefers  to  be 
concerned  only  with  things  that  can  be  proved  by  inductive  process, 
or  be  worked  out  with  algebraic  formulas.  But  then  there  are  other 
kinds  of  reasoning  than  algebraic,  and  there  are  other  fields  of 
research  than  the  physical,  and  in  them  there  is  as  much  room  for  sci- 
entific skill  as  in  the  more  materialistic  domain. 

IS    TRUE    SCIENCE    ANTAGONISTIC    TO    RELIGION? 

And  is  science  then  irreligious?  By  no  means.  The  men  of 
science,  like  the  men  of  philosophy,  themselves  are  too  often  irre- 
ligious ;  neither  do  they  love  to  retain  God  in  their  thoughts,  and  that 
for  the  same  reason  that  influences  the  undevout  philosopher,  they 
shun  the  paths  which  have  finger  boards  pointing  to  the  unknown  God. 
They  themselves  are  non-religious  or  irreligious,  and  therefore  they 
make  their  science  non-religious  or  irreligious  Hke  themselves.  If  we 
have  a  godless  science  it  is  because  our  expounders  of  science  are  god- 
less men  to  start  with. 

Science  itself  is  divine.  All  the  data  in  its  category  are  data  come 
from  God.  They  come  from  God  and  they  revert  to  God.  There  is  not 
a  single  branch  of  study  in  the  whole  curriculum  which  does  not  start 
men  on  the  way  to  God,  if  they  would  cease  to  hold  down  the  truth  in 
unrighteousness.  All  the  lines  of  true  science  lead  upward  and  God- 
w^ard.    If  they  would  let  them  but  speak   out  instead  of  that  utter 

67 


112  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

nescience  of  God  that  characterizes  them,  they  would  be  cr;v^ng  out  as 
their  discoveries  proceed,  as  did  the  seraphim  of  Isaiah,  "holy,  holy, 
holy  is  the  lord  of  hosts,  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory." 

And  as  with  the  philosopher,  so  again  with  the  scientist.  When 
the  latter  was  shown  his  inability  to  master  the  phenomena  presented, 
the  Lord  will  raise  up  devout  scientists  who  will  do  what  the  other  has 
failed  to  do.  They  will  take  up  his  facts ;  they  will  include  the  moral 
characteristics  that  attend  them,  but  which  the  undevout  scientist  has 
cast  aside  as  the  slag  of  his  furnace. 

They  will  take  them  all  up  and  construct  a  new  science  which 
will  be  truly  and  fully  scientific.  For  the  new  science  will  have  God 
for  its  beginning  and  God  for  its  ending,  God  for  its  author  and  God 
for  its  finisher.  The  science  of  the  future  will  be  radiant  with  the 
thoughts  of  God  and  fragrant  with  the  frequent  repetitions  of  His 
name.  Nothing  is  so  striking  in  the  science  of  to-day  as  the  careful- 
ness with  which  all  reference  to  Him  is  avoided.  Our  text  book  on 
astronomy  or  botany  or  geology,  and  kindred  sciences,  of  great  value 
though  thej'^  are,  and  composed  some  of  them  by  Christian  men,  and 
filled  with  occasions  to  point  out  the  evidence  of  design,  and  purposes 
of  blessing,  and  to  render  luminous  the  existence  of  a  personal  God, 
are  nevertheless  as  devoid  of  all  allusion  to  Him  as  if  composed  b}^ 
heathen  who  never  heard  of  Him.  Indeed,  any  recognition  of  God  is 
considered  out  of  place  in  a  scientific  treatise,  or  in  a  scientific  class- 
room. That  is  why  science  is  so  often  called  atheistic.  Science  always 
talks  of  Nature,  but  never  talks  of  Nature's  God. 

All  that  will  pass  away  in  the  science  of  the  future.  Indeed,  with 
a  few  men  it  has  passed  away  already.  More  than  fifty  years  ago  the 
late  General  Mitchell,  so  distinguished  as  an  astronomer,  was  accus- 
tomed to  deliver  courses  of  lectures  on  his  favorite  science.  He  would 
break  forth  into  a  rhapsody,  as  he  said  onc;e:  "Gentlemen,  how  ought 
we  to  regard  a  being  who  can  do  such  things  as  these?"  No  wonder 
that  even  unconverted  hearers,  as  one  of  them  himself  told  me,  involun- 
tarily bowed  the  head  in  worship. 

68     ^ 


Part  II]  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  113 

We  know  a  little  already  of  what  the  science  of  the  future  will  be 
when  the  text-book  and  the  classroom  will  begin  to  call  on  the  name 
of  the  Lord.    The  Bible  is  replete  with  illustrations.    In  that  majestic 
grand  march  of  the  creation,  the  Nineteenth  Psalm,  David  does  not 
end,  but  he  begins  his  astronomical  survey  by  saying:   "The  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork. 
Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech  and  night  unto  night  showeth  knowl- 
edge."     There     is    no    speech    nor    language   where    their   voice  is 
not  heard;  at  present    it    may    be    said    that    with    but    few    ex- 
ceptions there  is  no  speech  nor  language,  nor  text-book  nor  classroom 
where  it  is  heard.    David  always  connected  the  name  of  God  and  the 
hand  of  God  with  the  ordinary  meteorological  events  of  the  day. 
"Thou  visiteth  the  earth  and  watereth  it;  thou  waterest  the  ridges 
thereof  abundantly;  thou  makest  it  soft  with  showers."     In  another 
place  he  calls  on  all  creation  to  unite  in  a  grand  diapason  of  praise. 
"Praise  him  sun  and  moon  and  stars,  praise  him  all  ye  stars  of  light; 
praise  ye  the  Lord ;  ye  dragons,  and  all  deeps ;  fire  and  hail,  snow  and 
vapor,  stormy  wind  fulfilling  his  word,  mountain  and  all  hills,  fi-uitful 
trees  and  all  cedars,  beasts  and  all  cattle,  creeping  things  and  flying 
fowl,  kings  of  the  earth  and  all  people,  princes  and  all  judges  of  the 
earth,  both  young  men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children,  let  them 
praise  the  name  of  the  Lord,  for  his  name  alone  is  excellent,  his  glory 
is  above  earth  and  heaven."    This  is  a  prediction  of  the  way  in  which 
science  will  be  taught  in  the  millenium,  when  everything  will  be  made 
to  show  forth  his  power,  his  wisdom,  and  his  goodness.    Praise  ye  the 
Lord !    Praise  God  in  his  sanctuary !    Praise  him  in  the  firmament  of 
his  power!    Praise  him  for  his  mighty  acts!    Praise  him  for  his  ex- 
cellent greatness. 

FOUR  GREAT  SCHOOLS  OF  LEARNING. 

It  is  fitting  that  this  brief  reference  to  the  school  of  Philosophy 
and  the  school  of  Science  should  be  supplemented  by  a  glance  at  the 

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114  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

teaching  of  quite  anotiier  school, — the  School  of  Faith.  There  is  also 
the  School  of  Experience  with  which  men  have  had  much  to  do 
already,  and  with  which  they  will  have  more  to  do  when  the  footing 
up  time  comes  in  the  millenium.  All  these  make  their  contributions 
to  the  theology  of  nature  and  add  their  full  measure  of  confirmation 
to  the  theology  of  revelation  when  mankind  takes  its  post  graduate 
course,  and  the  great  round-up  of  the  nations  is  called  in  the  program 
of  Providence.  Philosophy  is  preeminently  deductive  in  its  method ; 
science  is  inductive ;  faith  is  receptive,  and  experience  is  ratifying  and 
confirmatory.  There  was  a  time  when  there  was  no  school  of  philoso- 
phy; there  was  a  time  again  when  there  was  no  school  of  Science; 
there  never  was  a  time  when  there  w^as  no  School  of  Faith,  and  no 
School  of  Experience. 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  FAITH. 

Modern  thinkers,  fond  of  metaphysical  formulas,  abound 
in  intricate  definitions  of  faith.  It  is  spoken  of  as  a  special 
sense  which  has  a  certain  metaphysical  insight  into  certain 
liidden  qualities.  To  common  people,  faith  does  not  seem 
to  be  so  hard  of  explanation.  In  the  final  analysis.  Faith 
is  simply  believing.  According  to  the  Scriptures,  a  man  may 
believe  with  the  head  only,  or  he  may  believe  with  the  heart  only,  or  he 
may  beheve  with  both  combined.  It  is  the  heart  element  that  gives  to 
faith  its  moral  character.  If  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  intellectual  percep- 
tion, it  has  no  moral  character.  It  is  the  attitude  of  the  heart  towards 
a  truth  that  determines  the  quality  of  the  faith.  Two  persons  may 
beheve  the  same  thing,  but  may  feel  very  differently  in  regard  to  it. 
The  devils  beheve  there  is  one  God;  they  beheve  it  because  the  evi- 
dence is  indisputable,  but  they  hate  it  nevertheless.  The  Christian  be- 
heves  there  is  one  God ;  he  is  glad  of  it  and  loves  to  have  it  so,  and  tries 
to  add  to  his  conviction.  Faith  in  the  one  case  is  a  manifestation  of 
wickedness;  in  the  other  it  is  a  manifestation  of  goodness;  in  every 

70 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  115 

case,  it  is  the  heart.  Take  another  illustration:  exactly  the  same  kind 
of  evidence  is  presented  against  a  boy  engaged  in  some  mahcious  trick- 
ery ;  a  neighbor  who  dislikes  the  boj'",  and  is  glad  to  believe  anything  to 
his  detriment,  quickly  accepts  the  whole  story;  his  mother,  who  loves 
the  boy  and  who  is  not  willing  to  accept  anything  to  his  discredit,  will 
not  believe  a  word  of  it.  Both  are  evidently  sincere,  and  again  it  is 
the  heart  that  makes  the  difference.  And  so  the  Bible  insists  on  men 
believing  with  the  heart, — "If  thou  believest  in  thine  heart."  The  rea- 
son why  myriads  of  men  do  not  believe  the  testimony  that  God  has 
given  is  because  they  don't  want  to.  The  heart  dominates  the  in- 
tellect. 

FAITH  OUR  GREATEST  SOURCE  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

But  the  point  now  to  be  made  is  that  faith  is  our  greatest  school 
of  learning.    More  of  our  knowledge  comes  in  that  way  than  from  all 
other  sources  combined.     "By  faith  we  understand,"  is  the  scientific 
statement  of  Paul,  the  philosopher.    We  learn  from  books;  we  learn 
from  our  parents;  we  learn  from  our  teachers  a  thousand  things  we 
should  never  know  if  we  had  to  demonstrate  them  for  ourselves.    This 
point  has  already  been  adverted  to  above.     The  knowledge  we  gain 
through  faith  is  thoroughly  philosophic  and  thoroughly  scientific; 
nothing  can  be  more  so.    It  is  also  thoroughly  judicial  to  take  the  tes- 
timony of  a  credible  and  competent  witness,  or  of  an  expert,  or  of  the 
deviser  and  manager  of  any  sj^stem  of  causations.     Not  only  is  faith 
our  greatest  source  of  knowledge  as  to  quantity,  but  it  is  our  most  re- 
liable source  of  knowledge  as  to  quality.    When,  as  a  philosopher,  or 
as  a  scientist,  we  investigate  and  speculate  and  reason  about  the  things 
of  God,  we  are  liable  to  continue  in  mistakes.     Our  data  may  be 
wrong;  our  premises  may  be  wrong,  and  our  inferences  may  be  wrong, 
and  we  may  be  years  groping  our  way  back.    But  if  we  take  anything 
on  the  word  of  the  Omniscient,  that  is  the  end  of  it.     We  drop  no 
stitches;  we  have  no  loose  ends  to  take  up,  and  we  have  no  aberrations 

71 


116  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

to  correct.  In  the  schools  of  Philosophy  and  Science,  we  have  to  lean 
on  ourselves;  in  the  school  of  Experience,  we  have  to  wait  until  the 
experiences  are  all  in  and  counted ;  but  in  the  School  of  Faith,  one  sen- 
tence from  the  Living  God  disposes  of  the  whole  matter. 

THE  METHOD  OF  FAITH  AND  THE  METHOD  OF  SCIENCE. 

In  the  school  of  Faith,  the  learner  takes  God's  word  for  it ;  in  the 
school  of  Science,  the  learner  prefers  to  find  out  for  himself.  Which 
is  the  better  way?  The  difference  between  the  two  is  that  one  is  aprori^ 
and  the  other  is  apostori.  One  begins  at  the  top  and  goes  down;  the 
other  begins  at  the  bottom  and  goes  up.  Thus  if  it  were  a  question  of 
the  rise,  the  course  and  the  outlet  of  the  Mississippi  River,  for  ex- 
ample, the  aprori  student  begins  at  Turtle  Lake;  with  chart  in  hand 
on  which  it  is  all  marked  out,  he  goes  down  the  river;  he  finds  every 
city  and  town  just  as  marked  on  the  map ;  he  lands  at  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico where  he  was  told  at  the  start  he  would  land.  The  aposteriori  stu- 
dent starts  at  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  works  his  way  up  without  any 
chart,  but  he  is  not  sure  of  any  of  his  conclusions  until  he  gets  to  the 
end.  When  he  gets  there,  then  both  students  have  the  same  informa- 
tion, but  they  have  gotten  it  in  different  ways.  The  attitude  of  the 
Faith  student  and  of  the  Science  student  may  be  illustrated  in  another 
way.  An  Atlantic  cable  is  laid  from  Queenstown  to  Halifax.  One  man 
learns  all  about  it  from  the  shipmaster  who  laid  the  cable  and  who  as- 
sui  es  him  that  one  end  is  at  Queenstown  and  the  other  end  at  Halifax. 
Another  man  says  he  will  take  no  hearsay  about  it ;  he  will  find  out  for 
himself.  Being  possessed  of  vast  wealth,  he  charters  a  vessel,  and  with 
steam  up,  a  mighty  grapnel  at  the  bow,  he  goes  fishing  up  the  cable 
every  few  miles  across  the  Atlantic,  and  finally  comes  out  at  Queens- 
town. He  triumphantly  makes  known  his  discoveiy  to  the  world,  and 
he  says, — "the  great  Atlantic  cable  has  one  end  at  HaUfax  and  one 
end  at  Queenstown."  It  is  announced  as  a  wonderful  scientific  dis- 
covery !    But  now  with  all  his  toil,  all  his  labor,  all  his  time  and  all  his 

72 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  117 

expense,  what  does  he  know  more  than  the  other  man  knew  from  the 
start  without  the  sacrifice  of  labor,  or  time,  or  money. 

Apply  this  reasoning  to  the  world  of  matter  around  us.  The 
Christian  starts  out  with  the  dicta  contained  in  the  Bible;  he  beUeves 
in  a  creator;  he  believes  that  God's  hand  made  all  these  things;  he 
beheves  that  for  his  own  glory,  and  that  includes  the  blessedness  of  his 
creatures,  they  are  and  were  created.  The  scientist  has  not  got  there ; 
for  all  these  many  years  since  his  science  became  inductive,  he  has  been 
experimenting  and  feeling  his  way.  He  was  not  willing  to  admit  a 
personal  Creator ;  he  believes  in  law,  as  he  calls  it, — fixed  and  unalter- 
able law;  he  talks  of  energy, — of  omnipotent  energy.  But  little  by 
little  has  he  been  forced  to  drift  towards  the  conclusion  with  which  the 
faith  student  started  out.  He,  too,  is  beginning  to  admit  that  there 
is  and  there  must  be  a  Living  God  who  has  not  only  created  but  sus- 
tains all  things  by  word  of  his  power.  The  great  problems  so  contin- 
ually coming  to  the  front  in  their  studies,  Whence,  How,  Why  and 
Whither,  are  no  stumbling  block  to  the  student  in  the  school  of  Faith. 
In  the  word  of  God,  which  is  his  supreme  guide,  he  sees  his  pathway 
clear  and  marked  out;  he  follows  the  predictions  they  contain,  and  is 
ever  moving  towards  his  portal  of  rest.  The  dictum  put  forward  so 
frequently  in  our  day,  that  if  theology  w^ould  gain  acceptance  for  it- 
self, it  must  be  put  on  a  scientific  basis,  that  is,  must  be  established  by 
a  scientific  formula.  To  this  reply  is  made  already :  That  faith  is  emi- 
nently philosophic  and  scientific  as  well  as  theologic;  but  it  is  more 
than  that;  it  transcends  them  all  and  holds  sway  in  a  domain  which 
none  of  them  ever  can  reach  except  by  the  help  of  faith  itself.  Fun- 
damental and  distinctive  articles  of  the  credenda  of  the  faith  are  be- 
yond the  power  of  philosophy  to  handle  or  even  to  touch.  Among 
these  fundamental  articles  of  belief  are, — that  Christ  is  coming  to 
judge  the  quick  and  dead;  that  He  will  give  a  crown  of  rejoicing 
to  all  who  long  and  look  for  his  appearing;  that  He  will  take  and 
present  us  to  His  Father  with  exceeding  joy;  that  we  shall  sit  down 

73 


118  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

with  Him  on  his  throne,  and  a  score  of  other  things  concerning  which 
Science  cannot  say  yes,  and  it  cannot  say  no.  How  can  Science  affirm 
or  deny  that  Christ  is  going  to  come  in  the  clouds  of  Heaven ;  how  can 
it  affirm  or  deny  that  He  will  present  us  to  His  Father;  how  can  it 
affirm  or  deny  that  we  shall  sit  on  his  throne  ?  It  cannot.  To  attempt 
any  such  scientific  appHcation  of  its  scientific  method  would  only  turn 
rotaries  into  a  scientific  laughing  stock.  We  who  are  Christians  beheve 
these  things,  not  on  scientific  ground,  but  on  the  warrant  of  testimony. 
We  take  Christ's  word  for  it ;  he  said  he  will  come,  and  we  believe  it ; 
he  said  he  will  give  us  a  crown,  and  we  beheve  it;  he  said  we  will  sit 
with  Him  on  his  throne,  and  we  believe  it,  and  we  are  glad  of  it,  and 
rejoice  in  hope  of  the  Glory  of  God,  and  that  is  the  end  of  the  whole 
matter.  That  is  faith  of  the  head  and  faith  of  the  heart,  and  it  is  faith 
in  Christ  and  faith  in  God. 

LET  us  HEAR  THE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER. 

We  take  the  privilege  of  repeating  a  little  and  of  summing  up 
the  points  which  are  made  in  this  discussion : 

I.  It  is  as  proper  to  speak  of  the  theology  of  Nature  as  of  the  the- 
ology of  Revelation;  the  two  are  distinct,  and  yet  coordinate. 

II.  There  is  religious  and  a  moral  law  of  nature,  written  on  the 
table  of  every  man's  heart,  which  accuses  or  excuses  every  man  the 
same  as  does  a  judge.  One  law  has  to  do  with  man's  relation  to 
God,  and  the  other  law  with  his  relations  to  his  fellow  men. 

III.  There  is  also  and  always  has  been  since  time  began,  a  Gospel 
of  Nature, — a  due  regard  for  which  is  of  the  nature  of  faith,  even 
though  very  rudimentary  in  form,  and  which  owes  its  value  to  the 
relation  it  bears  in  the  promise  and  plan  of  God  to  Christ  the  Lamb  of 
God,  who  redeems  and  takes  up  all  the  pledges,  promises  and  portents 
that  God  ever  made.  In  all  matters  of  apphcation  of  the  gospel  of 
nature,  God  alone  and  never  man  is  the  exclusive  judge  and  dispenser. 
How  many  persons  in  all  the  ages  may  be  saved  by  this  gospel  of  nature 

74 


Part  II]  STONES    IN    THE    ROUGH  119 

we  have  no  means  of  knowing ;  but  that  there  are  some,  we  confidently 
believe;  that  there  may  be  many, — a  greater  multitude  perhaps  than 
we  dare  dream  of,  we  devoutly  hope.  The  gospel  of  nature  seems  to 
be  set  over  against  the  law  of  nature  as  Gerizim  was  sent  over  against 
Ebal.  This  appears  to  be  entirely  reasonable  and  we  think  not  unscript- 
ural.  It  would  be  the  height  of  presumption  to  dogmatize  here,  but  if 
it  be  so,  a  sort  of  seeming  one-sidedness  of  God's  judicial  treatment  of 
men  is  taken  away,  and  the  Divine  administration  is  rendered  illustrious 
in  its  equability.  In  these  views  there  is  nothing  to  cut  the  nerve  of  mis- 
sions. Christ  came  that  men  might  have  life,  and  might  have  it  more 
abundantly ;  having  got  it  ourselves,  we  are  bound  by  every  considera- 
tion of  love  and  loyalty  to  impart  it  to  others.  If  we  aUow  others  to 
abide  in  darkness,  by  witliliolding  the  torch  which  God  has  put  into 
our  hands  for  them,  we  are  robbers,  and  ourselves  will  have  the  dark- 
ness gather  upon  us.  In  our  own  land  even  now  there  are  callous  souls 
in  which  colorific  and  calorific  rays  have  ceased  to  penetrate,  and  are 
stumbling  upon  the  dark  mountains.  It  was  a  gracious  and  yet  a  fear- 
ful sentence  which  Christ  spake: — "For  judgment  am  I  come  into  this 
world  that  they  which  see  not  might  see,  and  they  which  see  might  be 
made  blind."  Christ  is  the  Son  of  Righteousness;  his  rays  light  up 
the  mountain  tops  before  he  himself  appears,  and  also  many  a  dark 
valley  out  of  the  path  of  his  orbit.  For  the  darkness  is  past,  and  the 
true  light  now  shineth, — the  true  light  that  lighteneth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world.  Refracted  rays,  reflected  rays  and  twihght 
rays  are  all  of  theme  sunlight  rays. 

IV.  The  river  that  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden  parted 
into  four  streams.  When  the  four  great  schools  of  learning  are  to 
unite,  the  order  will  be  reversed;  they  will  unite  before  they  enter 
Eden.  "When  the  union  does  come,  the  faith  stream  will  give  its  name 
to  the  waters  of  the  whole.  For  faith  is  supreme  and  must  be  su- 
preme ;  for  its  credenda  are  a  dicta  of  omniscience,  and  therefore  faith 
is  ever  sure  of  itself.    The  supreme  and  ultimate  questions  of  the  eter- 

75 


120  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  [Part  II 

nal  world  can  only  be  answered  by  God  himself.  There  will  be  no 
antagonism  there,  though  men  create  antagonisms  here.  A  true  phil- 
osophy, a  true  science,  a  fully  rounded  human  experience,  and  a  true 
theology  will  all  be  found  coming  in  at  the  same  time,  at  the  same  ter- 
minal, and  bearing  the  same  testimony, — all  having  reached  the  same 
conclusion.  Philosophy  and  Science,  footsore  and  weary  with  their 
wanderings  in  the  desert,  will  frankly  admit  their  inabihty  to  find  out 
the  Almighty  to  perfection,  and  the  necessity  of  their  falling  back  to 
take  a  post-graduate  course  in  the  School  of  Faith.  A  great  volume 
can  be  filled  with  the  things  they  have  found  out ;  but  a  much  greater 
volume  will  be  required  for  the  things  they  don't  know  and  cannot  find 
out  until  God  tells  them.  They  cannot  now  exhaust  the  mysteries 
there  is  in  a  blade  of  grass ;  the  secret  of  life  eludes  them ;  go  which  way 
they  will,  they  are  always  butting  against  the  unknown.  Human  ex- 
perience, having  completed  its  round  from  Gilgal  to  Gilgal  and  from 
Eden  to  Eden,  will  add  its  confirmatory  testimony,  "Like  as  the  Lord 
said  he  would  do  unto  us,  so  hath  he  done."  From  the  ends  of  the  earth 
Jiave  we  come,  confessing  that  our  Father's  have  inlierited  vanity  and 
lies  and  things  wherein  there  is  no  profit.  Henceforth  let  us  go  up  to 
the  mountain  of  the  house  of  the  Lord ;  He  will  teach  Us  of  his  ways, 
and  henceforth  we  will  walk  in  his  paths. 

This  harmony  will  continue  to  exist  in  the  next  world  as  well  as 
at  the  close  of  this  world,  for  there  too  must  there  be  philosophic  con- 
ception of  the  plans  of  God,  scientific  study  of  the  works  of  God 
sought  out  of  all  them  that  have  pleasure  therein,  living  experience 
of  the  ways  of  God  and  theological  surveys  of  all  the  infinities  of  the 
universe,  and  above  all  of  the  infinity  of  God  himself.  And  then  not 
philosophy,  not  science  will  be  in  the  ascendant,  but  faith.  Faith  will 
be  primate  forever.  A  scientist  of  the  world's  type  who  discards  the 
data  of  faith  and  who  wants  to  find  out  everything  for  himself,  and 
professes  to  deal  only  with  phenomena,  will  be  an  exotic,  an  ignora- 
mus and  a  nuisance,  even  to  the  end.    As  things  now  are,  let  science  go 

76 


Part  II]  STONES    IN     THE    ROUGH  121 

on  and  collect  her  facts ;  when  she  gets  them  she  will  need  a  philosophy 
to  unite  them  into  a  system,  and  both  philosophy  and  science  will  need  a 
theology  of  faith  to  coordinate  them  and  fix  their  place  in  The 
Science  of  God. 


77 


^lvmmm^,^nni°f'^^^  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012   01251    6037 


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